Dementia-suffering OAP who beat and strangled his wife to death has got away with brutal killing because he ‘cannot remember’ the attack
Couple had been married for over 60 years but pensioner's health deteriorated after suffering strokes & onset of dementia
A GERMAN pensioner who killed his wife - and then forgot about it because he has dementia - has got away with murder.
Alfred W., 82, killed wife Lydia in August last year. A court heard how he beat her to the floor before strangling her with a rope in their Munich flat.
The couple had been married six decades but Alfred W.'s health nosedived after he suffered two strokes and dementia set in.
On trial at Munich District Court, the judge has already ruled he cannot criminally be held to account for murder.
The court heard that Lydia probably stopped him from driving on the day she was killed, triggering a violent outburst.
His son Manfred told the court his father had told him he “didn’t want to live like an idiot anymore”, and twice had tried to take his own life.
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In court, Alfred W. refused to wear a hearing aid.
He was able remember who he is, when he was born and what job he had trained to do.
But when asked for his father’s name, he said: “I will tell you everything, but because of the stroke I don’t know anymore.”
To the accusation that he had murdered his wife, Alfred W. replied: “I haven’t done anything to anyone."
After he had made his statement, Manfred sat next to his father, whom he comforted by putting his left arm around his shoulder.
"What he did was bad, but I have forgiven him," Manfred W. told the court.
The prosecution is requesting that he be taken to a psychiatric clinic.
He poses a danger to the public and his dementia is “not to be stopped or cured”, according to prosecutors.
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