Czech court sentences woman to 22 years for 158 stab wounds

A court in Czechia has sentenced a woman named Hrdová to 22 years in prison. She was found guilty of murdering an acquaintance, whom she stabbed 158 times, and of attacking another man, whom she threw off a bridge.

The first attack: a bridge in Jevišovice

The first incident took place in June last year in Jevišovice, in the Znojmo district. According to prosecutor Iveta Eichlerová, the woman was out walking with a friend at night and persuaded him to sit on the bridge railing for a selfie. She then pushed him, and when he did not fall, she grabbed his legs and flipped him over the railing. The man fell almost six metres, after which she climbed down to him and punched him in the face. The victim survived only by sheer luck.

The murder in a hostel

The second attack, which ended in death, happened in November in a local hostel. According to the case file, the woman visited an older acquaintance who lived there and, during intimate contact, picked up a knife. In total she inflicted 158 wounds on him.

Presiding judge Michal Zámečník noted that the victim suffered unimaginably and that the final blow struck a body that was still alive. In the judge's view, the woman acted deliberately in both cases, and her behaviour was influenced by a sexual deviation. Experts nevertheless established that she understood her actions were unacceptable and was in control of herself.

What the defendant and the court said

The defence proposed waiving the sentence and ordering only placement in a preventive treatment facility (detention). Zámečník rejected this: in his words, the defendant is dangerous to society, was sane and must be punished. He also remarked that she could have turned to specialists for help after the incident on the bridge, but did not, and a few months later committed a far more brutal crime.

In court the woman said she felt guilty and was ready to serve her sentence, and that she would like to receive treatment. She attributed the attack on the bridge to the influence of an imaginary friend, as well as to the fact that she had taken psychotropic pills and drunk about ten mugs of beer. She said she committed the murder too on this friend's prompting. After calling the police afterwards, she said she was going to kill herself.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz