The Nyíregyháza District Court sentenced the defendant with a criminal record to 9 years in prison for attempted murder and 9 years of suspension from public affairs, with the exception of a prison sentence that cannot be released on parole.
According to the verdict, a love relationship developed between the accused and the victim in the summer of 2021, which deteriorated by the end of the year due to the man’s drinking, but they contacted each other again in March 2022. On March 7, while the woman was at her workplace, the accused opened one of the windows of her house, entered there, and then punctured the flexible gas pipe connected to the stove in several places in order to kill the victim with the escaping gas. When the woman got home, upon entering the house, she noticed the strong smell of gas, discovered the damaged gas pipe, so she shut off the gas and ventilated the apartment. The man blamed the damage to the gas pipe on the woman’s dogs. The next morning – after the woman went to work again – the defendant went back to the victim’s apartment through the window and opened the gas tap that had been shut off the day before, and took the woman’s puppies with him. During the morning, the victim went home with one of his colleagues to replace the damaged gas pipe, but upon entering the house he noticed the smell of gas again. He shut off the gas tap and notified the police.
If the gas had exploded, it would have directly endangered the life of the woman living in the apartment building.
The offender and his defense appealed against the verdict, primarily for an acquittal, and secondly for a reduction of the sentence.
According to the opinion of the Debrecen General Prosecutor’s Office, the judgment of the first instance court is legal and well-founded. The defendant’s intention was to take the woman’s life by puncturing the flexible gas pipe in several places and opening the gas tap on both days. If the gas tap is not shut off, a gas explosion could have occurred by switching on any of the electrical equipment or light switches. The failure to do so was merely a matter of chance, so the appeals general prosecutor’s office proposed that the judgment be upheld.
At second instance, the Debrecen Board of Judges decides the case.
– General Prosecutor’s Office of Debrecen –
