causing the death of Kerstin G in January 2025 by gross negligence<\/a>, an offence that carries a maximum prison sentence of three years.<\/p>\nThe one-day proceedings in the court in Innsbr\u00fcck, western Austria, attracted the attention of the mountaineering community worldwide, in what was an extremely rare case of a prosecution over a climbing accident. Experts say it sets a precedent and will now shape international standards for liability in mountain sports.<\/p>\n
Thomas P had pleaded not guilty, and told the court he was \u201cendlessly sorry\u201d for the death of his girlfriend. His lawyer had called it a \u201ctragic accident\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard how after a day\u2019s gruelling climbing in freezing conditions in which they were well behind schedule, the 33-year-old woman was exhausted and lacking the energy to continue, after the couple had reached around 50 metres below the summit of the Gro\u00dfglockner mountain, after nightfall.<\/p>\n
Webcam footage shows a clear image of the boyfriend with a torch descending from the peak in stormy conditions in the early hours of 19 January 2025. Photograph: www.foto-webcam.eu<\/p>\n
Thomas P said the situation had been \u201cvery stressful\u201d.<\/p>\n
He had left Kerstin G on a ridge exposed to strong winds when he had gone to fetch help, he admitted. He said he could not explain why he had failed to wrap her either in the emergency blanket she had carried with her, or a bivouac bag. When her body was later recovered, the items were found in her rucksack.<\/p>\n
An ex-girlfriend, called as a witness, testified how she had also climbed the Gro\u00dfglockner with Thomas P in 2023, and described how he had abandoned her on the route at nighttime, leaving her distressed, after her head-torch ran out of battery.<\/p>\n
The court was shown webcam footage of Thomas P and Kerstin G ascending the mountain, as well as Thomas P descending it alone. The glare of his torchlight lit up bright against the snowy mountainside.<\/p>\n
The presiding judge, Norbert Hofer, an experienced mountaineer, ruled the defendant was negligent in failing to realise that Kerstin G would be unable to complete the climb well before the two ran into difficulty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not see you as a murderer. I do not see you as cold-hearted,\u201d he told Thomas P as he read out his verdict, accepting that he had gone to fetch help.<\/p>\n
But he said that as the defendant was a more proficient mountaineer than his girlfriend by \u201cgalaxies\u201d, and she had placed herself in his care he was liable for her death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An amateur mountaineer has been found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter over the death of his girlfriend, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-435906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}