Poured Gasoline on Girlfriend and Set Her on Fire, Tortured a Rat: Court Hears Case of Torture and Attempted Murder

A court is hearing the case of a young man named Junek, who stands accused of nearly a dozen crimes — from attempted murder and rape to torturing a person living in the same household, animal cruelty, extortion and making dangerous threats.

According to the prosecution, from autumn 2024 to spring 2025 the defendant systematically abused his girlfriend both psychologically and physically: he beat her daily over trivial matters, shaved her head, and struck her with a telescopic baton. At one point he took a pet rat the couple kept — one the girl was deeply attached to — slammed it against a wall several times, and then forced her to kill the animal herself to end its suffering. She could not bring herself to do it, and the rat died of internal bleeding several hours later.

The case reached its climax in April last year: demanding a confession from his girlfriend, Junek doused her stuffed toy in gasoline and set it on fire to make his words more menacing. He then rigged up a makeshift "flamethrower" using a lighter and an aerosol can, and poured gasoline on the girl herself and set her alight.

"I don't even remember what happened before that, why I got angry. Everything turned red before my eyes, I was extremely aggressive. I suspected she was cheating on me, I thought she was lying to me," the defendant told the court. He claimed he only meant to frighten her badly enough to force a confession, even though he had no direct proof of infidelity.

As a result, the young woman suffered second- and third-degree burns over 16% of her body, including her face and chest. She was not taken to hospital until the following day — according to the defendant, the two of them decided together not to call an ambulance, hoping to manage on their own. "Most of the time she was asleep, I gave her angel dust (phencyclidine, a synthetic hallucinogenic drug) — it makes you feel invincible," Junek said.

The defendant admitted to most of the alleged offences, and the court accepted his guilty plea, dropping further evidentiary proceedings on those counts. However, he denies attempted murder, insisting he never wanted the girl to die, despite dousing her in gasoline and setting her on fire.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz