Federal Court of Justice confirms verdict in “Angelique” murder case

More than 43 years after the murder of a prostitute in Hamburg, there is no longer any legal doubt as to who was the perpetrator. The judgment of the Hamburg Regional Court against a convicted person is legally binding. The Federal Court of Justice rejected the 62-year-old's appeal. The review of the judgment did not reveal any legal errors to his detriment, said the press office of the Federal Court of Justice.

On May 28, the regional court sentenced the man to a youth sentence of six years and three months in prison. The criminal chamber found the German guilty in a circumstantial trial. The man, who was almost completely deaf from birth, is said to have shot the transsexual prostitute, who was known as “Angelique,” ​​on the night of January 11, 1983. He is said to have fired three shots from a revolver, hitting the 41-year-old in the head, chest and thigh.

The crime was committed in the victim's caravan in a parking lot in the Hammerbrook district. “Angelique” had spoken to the defendant near the Reeperbahn and, as a suitor, took him to the caravan in his car.

The then 18-year-old defendant suddenly gave in to the completely defenseless prostitute who was sitting on a bed. The victim bled to death at the scene while the perpetrator fled with his victim's wallet, savings book and other valuables. The carelessly thrown away items were later found near the Hammerbrook S-Bahn station and not far from the condemned man's mother's apartment. 100 D-Marks were missing from the wallet.

The criminal chamber is convinced that the projectiles seized by the police came from the defendant's revolver. A DNA trace on a cigarette butt in the car's ashtray was decoded in 2004. But it wasn't until 2025 that a criminal inspector looked closely into the case again. The perpetrator, who has now been convicted several times, was arrested in November last year.

The district court was convinced that the fatal shooting was a murder. The murder characteristics of insidiousness, greed and acting to make a crime possible are fulfilled. Since 1979, it has been the case in Germany that there is generally no statute of limitations for murder, meaning that perpetrators must expect criminal prosecution for the rest of their lives.

The defendant was an adolescent at the time of the crime. Based on previous reports in other criminal proceedings against the accused, the court applied juvenile criminal law. The public prosecutor's office had called for a youth sentence of seven years in prison, and the defense attorney had called for an acquittal. According to the sign language interpreters after the verdict was announced, the defendant said: “I swear to God it wasn’t me.”