Hamburg & Schleswig-Holstein: Defendant denies murder of a flower seller 32 years ago

Hamburg & Schleswig-Holstein
Defendant denies murder of a flower shop owner 32 years ago

09.09.2024, 11:17 a.m.

A flower seller is murdered in his Hamburg apartment. The police secure evidence. 32 years later, a man stands trial – and denies the accusation.

Hamburg (dpa/lno) – More than 32 years after the violent death of a flower seller in Hamburg-Horn, the trial against the alleged perpetrator has begun. The public prosecutor's office accuses a 53-year-old of murder out of greed. The Romanian's defense attorney told the criminal division of the regional court that her client denies the accusation.

Victim was strangled

The accused man is said to have drunk alcohol with a 60-year-old man in his apartment in the Horn district in March 1992. During an argument, he hit the man several times on the head with a rum bottle, tied him up in the bedroom with a torn bedsheet and gagged him with a piece of cloth. He then strangled him with a bedsheet. He left the apartment with the day's takings from the flower seller who had a stand at the main train station. The loot is said to have amounted to 1,500 to 2,000 D-Marks.

Despite intensive investigations, the crime could not be solved at the time. In the following years, the secured evidence was examined several times by forensic experts, the police announced in autumn 2023.

DNA hits

According to a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office, there was a DNA hit report from Italy in May 2023. A European arrest warrant was issued. The man was finally arrested in Great Britain last October.

“This is not an ordinary trial, it is a so-called cold case,” explained the defense attorney. The flower seller was homosexual and often had young men visiting him. Her client was also in the apartment. However, there is no evidence that he killed the 60-year-old. A murder motivated by greed cannot be proven. Manslaughter expires after 20 years, murder never does.