Story By: Michael Leidig,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
The man accused of killing a pregnant young woman with a teenage male pal because they wanted to see someone die showed the courtroom his middle finger as he was jailed for life.
The 18-year-old victim, identified only as Maria K. because of German privacy laws, was found stabbed to death a her home in Zinnowitz, a small Baltic Sea beach resort in the north-eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
A concerned friend went to her house and found Maria’s lifeless body in one of the rooms on 19th March 2019.
The public prosecutor in the case, Marc Engelhardt, told the youth court in the town of Stralsund on Germany’s Baltic coast that Nicolas Knoop, 19, and Niko Goettlich, 21, were guilty of ‘jointly killing out of a desire for murder and malice’.
The pair had been drinking in a local park and then had tricked their way into Maria’s home by saying they wanted to borrow a charger cable.
As she then went to get the pair a drink, she was stabbed by Knoop in the neck and back, and as she tried to defend herself was grabbed by Goettlich who held on to her legs so his friend could finish her off.
In total she was stabbed 30 times before she died.
The duo then sprayed water over the area to wash away any clues and threw their blood stained clothes from a nearby bridge into the sea together with their mobile phones.
The younger attacker, Nicolas Knoop, 19, was committed to a secure psychiatric institute and also ordered to get 12 years of youth detention, while Niko Goettlich, 21, was jailed for life. In the case of Knoop, the verdict means that if he is declared no longer in need of psychiatric care, he will then have to serve the youth detention.
The prosecutor said: “The pair met up and deliberately chose their victim as they wanted to see how a person dies.”
The two fled after murdering Maria K., but were arrested mid April.
Mayor Peter Usemann said that he was “shocked” by the murder in his sleepy spa town of just 4,000 residents.
The German mother Maria, 47, was reportedly rushed to hospital in shock after learning about her daughter’s tragic death, but she now tries to remain as strong as she can for her two sons.
Speaking after the verdict she said: “I am satisfied with the decision but it will not bring back my daughter or my unborn grandchild.”
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