Woman locked in pigsty near Znojmo: attacker gets five years

The Regional Court in Brno has upheld the sentence of Viktor Götz, a resident of the Znojmo district: five years in prison for abusing a woman whom he shaved and locked in a pigsty. His accomplice, Tomáš Brunklik, received a two-year suspended sentence. The verdict is final.

What happened on the farm

The attack took place this spring at a farmstead where several people lived, mostly socially vulnerable. Götz and Brunklik lured one of the residents into the kitchen and attacked her. While Brunklik tied the woman to a chair with cling film, Götz began playing the barber.

To general amusement, he shaved about three quarters of her head and sprayed her with a spray can. The dog belonging to the woman was hit by the spray too: it ran away in panic and never came back. Götz then drove the woman out into the yard and locked her in a pigsty with pigs and hens, where she had to lie crying on manure. Another resident of the house rescued her.

What the court decided

Both men had earlier been punished by the district court in Znojmo. Götz received five years not only for the attack described above but also for destroying road signs, making threats and a robbery in which he took a mobile phone. Brunklik was given two years suspended, with a probation period of 2.5 years, for unlawful restraint.

Both appealed, and the case was heard by the regional court in Brno. Neither man appeared at the hearing; their arguments were presented by their lawyers. Brunklik's defense counsel argued that the act might amount only to a misdemeanor, while Götz's lawyer said the punishment was too harsh, since his client had admitted guilt in most of the counts.

The panel, chaired by Judge Vlastimír Čech, found no grounds to intervene. The judge recalled Brunklik's justification: by tying up and shaving the woman, the men had supposedly done a good deed, because they were ridding her of lice, and besides she had been talking nonsense.

“The attack in the kitchen was unprovoked. The defendants were having fun and laughing, and someone present even filmed it on a phone. And to claim it was about hygiene is outrageous,” the judge said.

In his words, driving a person out into a pigsty at night and making them lie on manure is a serious violation of human dignity. Five years for Götz, he added, is still a lenient sentence, and had the prosecutor's office also appealed, the court would have considered a tougher penalty.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz