Murderer awarded €3k after police threatened violence

A GERMAN court awarded a man convicted of murdering an 11-year-old boy €3,000 in damages because a police officer had threatened violence during an interrogation.

The Frankfurt state court ruled 36-year-old Magnus Gaefgen deserved the damages because his human rights had been violated by the deputy police chief’s threat during questioning about the missing boy. But the court rejected Gaefgen’s claim he had suffered trauma as a result and should receive €10,000 in compensation.

“Based on the evidence, it is much more likely that this (trauma) is to be attributed to the experience of killing the victim,” Judge Arne Hasse wrote in his ruling.

Gaefgen also was ordered to pay the bulk of the costs of the trial.

Criticism of the ruling was swift and sharp, recalling the outrage provoked by the October 2002 crime itself.

Eleven-year-old Jakob von Metzler, the son of a prominent Frankfurt banking family, went missing for four days; he had been kidnapped and murdered by Gaefgen, then a 27-year-old law student.

Gaefgen confessed in 2003 to kidnapping Metzler in an effort to win a €1m ransom and impress his girlfriend. When the boy began to fight back and shout, Gaefgen strangled him. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The Frankfurt deputy police chief who made the threat of violence was convicted of inducing abuse of authority in 2004 and sentenced to a year’s probation. He has since retired.