Man left his girlfriend to freeze to death

[Trevordidit]

Man left his girlfriend to freeze when she was struggling on a mountain hike.

He's been found guilty of manslaughter.

So many aspects of his account don't make sense - AIBU to wonder if he did it on purpose?

News article

It's really strange that they even attempted the whole thing considering her lack of experience with winter tours.
Wouldn't most people start off with a few hours, in daylight, in good weather, with all the right equipment, with food, with rescue number at the ready, etc before attempting what appears to be one of the most challenging routes in Austria / the Alps??

The whole thing seems doomed from the start.

Plus what was said in the Austrian article a pp linked to about monitoring your progress and hitting milestones at the right time and turning back (before the point of no return) if you don't. All of which is common sense and knowledge to people who climb.
Situations and conditions almost never go from good to critically life threateningly bad suddenly. There are many stages and decisions along the way. And they both seem to have made bad choices all the way along. But she paid with her life and he doesn't appear to have done obvious and sensible things to save her life.

Yes, @Chenecinquantecinqhe did.

It made me think of the (attributed) Stalin’s quote of ‘a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic’.

Wouldn’t you made absolutely sure that nothing like that could happen again??

There is no clear indication of him doing anything intentionally wrong.
He was caught in extreme conditions and was likely suffering from exhaustion and the beginnings of hypothermia too and so it’s obvious that he is not going to think as clearly as we all are sitting in our warm homes.

Thankfully the judge disagreed with your view because being found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence is clearly indication of intentional wrong. @Tacohill

This doesn't sound like an accident. A suspended sentence and a fine when a woman is dead and the man had previously left his old girlfriend in a life threatening situation.

Sounds more like negligent homicide. He failed to do what a reasonable person with his experience would do.

What I also didn’t understand about this story, was the general timelines.

So it was January, were they aiming to not summit until 9/10pm? They started at ~6.30.

Is hiking on a snow-covered alpine mountain in the depths of winter AND overnight a thing people do? Sounds extraordinarily dangerous

It's not about man/woman etc here.

If you're in the role of 'leader' whether thats a formal or informal role, then you do not lead the party if someone shows up in the wrong gear or clearly unfit to do the trip.

If they then set off on their own, they are responsible for themselves.

There are some pretty sensible and universal rules around leading someone or a group down a cave, over a mountain - one is that you do not let someone go if you believe they are not equipped or not fit to do it - if they insist, you don't go - another is that you move at the pace of the slowest person in the group - you don't get pissed off and stomp off without them which it appears he's done before.

There doesn't appear to be any good reason why he left her so long and why such a delay in seeking help. Yes, people with hypothermia do erratic things, which is why you do not leave them unless you absolutely have to.

The whole thing screams coercive control.

That fucking bastard, I'm glad women can get his name from the Times so that they are warned of what kind of man he is.

nahhhh. If you leave to get help - and i agree that may have been necessary - you get them in the bivvy bag with the blankets, and try to get them out of the wind.
He is awful. And this is not the first girlfriend he has (literally, in this case) stiffed on a climb.

the mother is a piece of work wittering on about how strong willed her daughter was. As though she was going "nah, mate, i'm doing it this way" and putting herself in danger.

His status as a guide makes it worse of course, but that is some victim blaming bullshit from her own mother.

ESPECIALLY if she couldn’t do it he should have done it and not just left her with the equipment.
but guess what, he didn’t even do that. He had a bivouac kit and thermal blanket and he didn’t leave her anything.

It’s impossible to prove intent in these circumstances so prosecutors wouldn’t even try. Not that they wouldn’t suspect it.

he was charged and found guilty of the harshest form of mans laughter under Austrian law, like a gross negligence manslaughter

I'm amazed this myth is still in circulation. If you have no signal from your operator but have some signal from another operator, you can still call emergency services. If you have no signal at all, you cannot call anyone. Period.

my phone has satellite calling for emergencies. It’s a newer, but not the latest iPhone. You can’t call but you can message emergency services.

It’s like killing somebody while drunk driving

The mountaineering types I've known would refuse to go out on such an expedition with someone who was insufficiently experienced and equipped (eg her boots) because it puts their lives in danger as well. I find it mind boggling that he did, before we get to any any other issues.

And of course may explain why this particular woman was vulnerable to being in a relationship with this particular type of man.

My view is that Thomas P is not a safe person to climb with and most certainly if you are female and in a relationship.

I have a friend who went up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) with a man she had been seeing for a couple of months. She asked me for some equipment and I gave it to her but I didn't have the right coat - we checked the weather. She took my oversized ex's coat against my advice.

He left her stranded halfway up saying she looked awful in the coat and shoes. He was an experienced mountaineer having scaled the Alps. She had to make her own way back down in driving rain. Thankfully he didn't keep in touch with her because she would have forgiven him.

I completely agree with the judges opinion and decision that it was a case of misjudgment rather than him being cold hearted or an intentional murderer.

It’s other posters who disagree with the judges decision.
I have maintained that I believe he was given the correct sentence based on the evidence only.

It wasn't a misjudgement. The judge ruled it was manslaughter by gross negligence.

It still doesn't really explain why he turned his phone off until 3.00am when emergency services tried to call and turned his back on the rescue helicopter (alerted by bystanders below) at 10,50pm making them impossible to find.

It was her who had the blanket and bivouac kit.
He called the rescue and waited with her for 2 hours before going to find help after they didn’t arrive.

I think she should have used the blanket hours before when they realised they were stuck and she started to get cold.
They were in her backpack and she was at that time capable of using them.

But I also agree that he should have forced her to put the blanket on before he left her, even if she didn’t want them or said she could do it herself.
And he especially should have used them if she was in capable of doing it herself.
The fact that she took her gloves off after he left (and apparently told him to go after he was reluctant to leave), suggests she was capable of getting the blanket out but in hindsight he should have forced her to do it.

It feels like if he just went to try and get help but that helps was too late it shouldn't exactly be blamed on him? But I guess if that's the law there.

You're accusing everyone else of supposition and yet your statement here ends with supposition. 'It is likely' that he was suffering with hypothermia - erm, no, there's no evidence or testimony of that at all.

No idea why you're defending a man who left his girlfriend to die because thinking he might be a wrong 'un is apparently misogynistic. Weird.

The judge gave him that sentence with a 5 month suspended prison sentence instead of actual prison because the judge stated he felt it was a misjudgment, rather than being cold hearted or a murderer.

It’s literally what the judge said.

So for you it's:

Man "joking" about domestic violence towards a woman - not a joke at all.

Woman "joking" about domestic violence towards a man - just not a funny joke.

Thanks for clarifying where you draw the line on domestic violence.

My parents inability to understand why their strong confident daughter couldn't just stand up to her husband was part of the reason it took me so long to escape an abusive marriage and the reason theu didn't support me as much as they should have done in the early days after leaving.

Parents aren't objective