A Dutch man in his forties who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in Switzerland 2 years ago for the brutal murder of a 62-year-old man with whom he was staying in exchange for sex, has been given a 4-year sentence reduction on appeal.
According to Swiss media, the court of the canton of St. Gallen ruled that Ronnie W. (44) had diminished responsibility at the time of the murder, in May 2016 in Lichtensteig. With that, she followed the conclusion in a new psychiatric report. This was because the court had ‘serious doubts’ about the criminal liability of the Dutchman. His lawyer and the public prosecutor agreed to a new psychiatric examination.
According to the court, the diminished accountability results from ‘the fact that the unstable suspect had to perform humiliating sexual acts on behalf of the victim and also had to consume so-called poppers.’ She decided to reduce the prison sentence from 14 years to 10 years.
W.’s defense argued that he had been sexually and psychologically humiliated and oppressed. She demanded a conviction for manslaughter instead of murder and a reduction of the prison sentence to a maximum of 3 years. The lawyer did not agree with the latter. “In particular, the manner in which the murder was carried out must be regarded as particularly reprehensible,” it said. For that reason, the cantonal court confirmed the murder conviction by the lower court in Toggenburg in June 2020. With that confirmation, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) got what it had demanded. The Public Prosecution Service considered the statements of the Dutchman implausible and called his act “cruel, cold-blooded and ruthless.”
poppers
Ronnie W. murdered Fredy Künzle on the night of May 2 to 3, 2016 while having sex in the Swiss’s living room. The man asked W. to perform certain actions, which he said he did not want. To overcome his aversion, the Dutchman said he took poppers (a drug often used during sex). When he wanted to drink water in the kitchen, the then 38-year-old W. saw a large knife, which he grabbed and then stabbed the sixty-year-old with it seven times while keeping his mouth shut.
Thinking his victim was still breathing, he then put a plastic bag over his head to choke him. He then stabbed the sixty-year-old with another object and then hid his body under the bed.
Internet platform
The two men had met on an internet platform. At the beginning of March 2016, the Swiss invited the Dutchman to his home in Thailand, where he lived with his then girlfriend. The visit lasted several weeks and was purely sexual in nature. After that, Künzle invited his sex partner to his apartment in Lichtensteig, Switzerland. The Dutchman stayed there from April 28, 2016.
W. said he knew he had to provide sexual services in exchange for shelter. “I had to obey in order to stay,” he said in court. The prosecution said he had displayed a “very strong will to kill.” The Dutchman’s lawyer then stated that his client had experienced his stay with the Swiss as ‘a psychiatric prison’.
I had to obey in order to stay
According to W. Künzle had determined everything, up to and including the sexual practices. That was a constant oppression for him. Because of the drugs and alcohol – they had drunk quite a few whiskey-colas together – he said he was ‘out of his senses’ at the time of the murder.
barrel organ
Künzle, who suffered from a lung disease, was well known in Lichtensteig. According to Swiss media, he was called ‘barrel organ Fredy’. This is because since 1976 he has run a museum for barrel organs, music boxes and other mechanical musical instruments and organized numerous barrel organ events in the approximately 1800 souls town.
He was honored for his work two days before his death. Künzle would have celebrated his 40th anniversary in the summer of 2016 and had been looking for a successor for some time. His daughters Nadja and Eliane continue the life’s work of their father.
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