Knife attack on Herdecke mayor: adoptive daughter charged
The Hagen public prosecutor's office has charged the 17-year-old adoptive daughter of Iris Stalzer with assault causing grievous bodily harm. The attack occurred shortly after Stalzer's election as mayor.
Charges brought after knife attack on mayor Stalzer in Herdecke
Just over eight months after a serious knife attack on the mayor of Herdecke, Iris Stalzer, the Hagen public prosecutor's office has charged her 17-year-old adoptive daughter with assault causing grievous bodily harm. This was reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The attack occurred on 7 October, shortly after Stalzer's election as mayor. News of the incident spread rapidly across the country at the time. Since a political motive could not initially be ruled out, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) also expressed his condolences on the platform X.
However, indications of a serious case of domestic violence emerged early on. According to the indictment, the teenager allegedly threatened and tormented her mother in the family home over several hours. Specifically, the public prosecutor accuses her of stabbing Stalzer multiple times with two knives, hitting her on the head with an object and breaking her nasal bone in the process.
The public prosecutor's office did not identify any intention to kill on the part of the teenager. The investigators viewed it in her favour that she herself called the emergency services. The accused has made no statements regarding the allegations to date.
The public prosecutor's office did not comment on a possible motive for the alleged offence, citing the juvenile age of the accused. Police sources reported in October that there had been long-standing conflicts within the family. Mother and children allegedly accused each other of domestic violence. Following her arrest, the teenager was temporarily admitted to a psychiatric facility; an expert assessed her as criminally responsible there.
The 58-year-old Stalzer recovered physically quickly from her injuries and was able to take up her office in the 23,000-inhabitant town on the south-eastern edge of the Ruhr region roughly four weeks after the attack. In her inaugural address, she described 7 October as "a day of failure and vulnerability" — and added that this failure and this vulnerability were now as much a part of her as her strength and reliability.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung