The Debrecen Court of Appeal has sentenced a man who brutally assaulted an acquaintance to 12 years in prison for attempted murder committed with particular cruelty, according to the court’s press secretary.
In a statement, press secretary Ildikó Fórizs said that the panel led by Judge Tamás Háger upheld the first-instance judgment of the Miskolc Regional Court but modified it by ordering that the defendant serve his sentence in a standard prison facility rather than a high-security penitentiary, citing his advanced age and serious health conditions.
According to the facts established by the court, the defendant had been drinking at an acquaintance’s property in Miskolc in July 2023. After consuming several drinks, he left the premises but later returned because he had forgotten a bag there. The victim allowed him back into the yard, and they went onto the terrace, where the intoxicated defendant fell asleep on a bench.
Later, disturbed by the loud barking of stray dogs, the homeowner took a gas and alarm pistol to scare the animals away. When he returned from the garden gate, the defendant, who had meanwhile awakened, attacked him without any apparent provocation. A struggle ensued, during which the defendant gained possession of the weapon and fired two shots.
One of the shots struck the victim in the temple area. The homeowner collapsed into a chair, where the attacker continued to beat and choke him. He then forced a piece of wood into the victim’s mouth, where it became lodged in his throat. The object was later removed at a hospital.
The assault was only stopped when police officers, alerted by neighbors, arrived at the scene.
As a result of the attack, the victim suffered multiple injuries requiring more than eight days to heal. The foreign object lodged in his throat left him in a life-threatening condition. Without its removal in hospital, he would have died from suffocation, the press secretary said.
