However, the plaintiff does not believe his partly evasive statements. "I’m unspeakably sorry," he said before the hamburg district court. He turned especially to the three sons of the actor dietmar mues, who appear before the court as a side plaintiff. "I beg your pardon, but could not forgive myself in your place."
In the serious accident on 12. March 2011, four people were killed, including the actor dietmar mues and his wife and the social researcher gunter amendt. The defendant admitted to having had epileptic seizures in the past. At the same time, however, the 40-year-old vehemently denied that he was epileptic – although he has been taking medication against it for years. The "tragic event" in eppendorf came "out of the blue" for him.
The defendant’s statements were sharply criticized by the plaintiff. "No one believes a word he says," said lawyer wolf rommig, who represents the three sons of the mues couple. He was "shocked and appalled" by the statements: "that was the opposite of a confession. That will hurt him badly, what he did today."Rommig also criticized the apology of the 40-year-old: "i didn’t hear much empathy there, it was posed for me."
According to the indictment, the driver of the accident had a seizure immediately before an intersection and had raced through a red light at a speed of at least 100 mph. His car skidded into a group of bikers and cyclists. The prosecution accuses the man of driving despite his epilepsy disorder. For he had already caused three accidents; in some cases, accidents are also said to have played a role.
Monotonous at first, but more and more energetic the longer the hearing went on, he said about his past: he had his first seizure in 1993, when he was in the army. Since 2005 he has been taking anti-epileptic medication. He attributed one of the three accidents he had before the crash in eppendorf not to his illness, but to a technical failure.
He also denied other incidents in the office, which several former colleagues had described in court. His colleagues may have "simply made a mistake". He stated that he had been bullied by these colleagues for a long time. In his medical records listed brain shuttering, he explained that he had pushed his head on the toilet or under the desk.
The presiding judge, birgit woitas, then accused him of insinuating that several witnesses had lied to the court. Whether he had correctly assessed his illness? "I stuck to what the doctors advised me to do," said the accused.
The 40-year-old also denied that his fiancee picked him up at the office after a serious attack to bring him fresh clothes – two former colleagues had testified to that. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating the life-threatening woman on suspicion of making false statements. The woman – who has been together with the defendant for 15 years – had declared in court that she had never been aware of her boyfriend’s illness.
"I am at a loss as to how this could have happened," said the defendant. The answer to this question has moved him ever since – so far no one has been able to give him an answer. One thing is certain for him: "I will never, never drive a car again."That a car can be a murder instrument was already burned into his mind much earlier. The defendant said he had consumed cannabis the night before the accident, which always calmed him down – under the influence of the cannabis active ingredient THC, he had never had a seizure.
