Suspended jail term for German father
2013-02-01 22:02
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Berlin - A German court on Friday handed down an 18-month
suspended sentence to the father of a 17-year-old boy who went on a rampage at
his former school, shooting 15 dead before turning the gun on himself.
The court in the south-western city of Stuttgart found
Joerg Kretschmer, a 54-year-old businessman, guilty of manslaughter and of
breaking gun laws.
His son Tim, 17, was able to take his father's 9mm
Beretta pistol in March 2009 and use it in his killing spree in the southern
German town of Winnenden.
Fearing a break-in, Kretschmer kept his gun by the
bedside, rather than locking it away, a mistake that cost the lives of nine of
Tim's fellow students, three teachers and three others.
The Stuttgart court was ruling on an appeal after an
earlier sentence of a 21-month suspended sentence.
This 2011 judgement was struck down following technical
irregularities.
The prosecution had argued for a harsher sentence while
the defence had said the loss of his son was punishment enough for the
businessman.
The massacre was the worst school shooting in Germany
since April 2002, when 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser, a disgruntled pupil
from Erfurt in eastern Germany who had been expelled, killed 16 people and then
himself.
- SAPA
