Prague Appeals Court Upholds 15-Year Sentence for "Tyrant from Siřem" Over Brutal Torture and Rape

The High Court has upheld the sentence handed down to a man named Novák, who over several months brutally tortured and raped a female acquaintance at a house in the village of Siřem near Žatec. The man was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while his accomplices received between five and a half and six years, according to Vanda Činková, who chaired the appellate panel.

According to the judge, there was no doubt about the guilt of the defendants, who had admitted their involvement, and the sentences imposed were proportionate. "We found no error committed by the court of first instance in determining the sentences," she said, noting that the case was exceptional and unusual: had the defendants not confessed, the sentences would have been considerably harsher.

Compensation Cut Almost in Half

The only aspect the court altered following the defendants' appeal was the amount of compensation owed to the victim. Instead of the original sum of nearly two million crowns, the convicted individuals must now pay her less than one million crowns, with the remainder of the claim referred to civil proceedings. The judge stressed that no one disputes the extent of the victim's suffering, but the claimed compensation amount was deemed excessive compared to sums awarded in similar cases.

Convicts Believed the Punishment Too Harsh

Novák himself considered his sentence excessively severe — in his appeal, he argued that the lower court had failed to sufficiently account for his diminished mental capacity stemming from his sadism, as well as the fact that he had confessed. His accomplices — Jana Petřílková and her daughter Barbora, both sentenced to six years, along with Barbora's boyfriend Ondřej Houška, who received five and a half years — also sought reduced sentences. One defense attorney called their punishments "exemplary" in a negative sense, implying they were meant to set an example.

All three claimed they feared Novák and could not stand up to him, but the prosecutor rejected these arguments, noting that Novák spent most of the week away from home at work. "It is simply incomprehensible how they can claim they could do nothing," the prosecutor said.

Abduction and Months of Torture

According to the investigation, Novák lured his acquaintance under false pretenses: in late 2024, he offered her housing and a job at his tavern in Nezabudice, in the Rakovník region. He picked her up by car and gave her a cola to drink along the way — feeling unwell, she realized the drink had been drugged. Novák stopped on a forest road, put a balaclava over her head, tied her hands behind her back, and instead of taking her to the tavern, drove her to the village of Siřem near Žatec, to the home of his then-girlfriend, where the torture began.

The ordeal continued for months: the victim was stripped, fitted with an electric shock collar around her neck, had her clothes torn off, was restrained with an anal gag, had her hands bound, and was locked in a shed in the yard behind the house. According to expert findings, Novák suffers from sexual deviance and sadism and poses a danger to society — he has been ordered to undergo mandatory inpatient sexological treatment.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz