German court finds teen guilty in school shooting

A juvenile court in Würzburg has sentenced a 15-year-old for killing a 14-year-old co-pupil. The hearing took place behind closed doors owing to the accused's age.

A court in the southern German city of Würzburg on Monday sentenced a 15-year-old boy to eight years and six months in juvenile detention for murdering a 14-year-old boy who was a pupil at the same school.

The court had to decide whether the shooting, which the accused had admitted carrying out during the trial, was a case of planned murder or of second-degree, unpremeditated murder.

State prosecutors, who argued that the murder had been carried out with malice — one element that can lead to a murder conviction under German law — as the bullet hit the victim in the back of the head, had called for eight years and nine months detention in a therapy facility with the option of more severe detention.

In its verdict, the court has accepted that line of reasoning.