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

@prh47bridge
Why would anyone call the police to tell them everything was fine? If he did, that seems very odd behaviour.

I think it was because the helicopter lights were searching them out at that point, and he wanted the helicopter to go away.

I think this case is more about risk and responsibility. It has determined that as the more experienced climber he should have better assessed risk for himself and his girlfriend and have taken responsibility for her kit, her choices and made the decision to go back sooner.

It's entirely possible that she over-estimated her own experience and was determined to keep going. If this was the case how far should he have believed her and what measures should he have taken to stop her making a bad decision (that could have been partly down to early hypothermia)

Would the outcome be the same if this were two men or is there an element of 'protecting women' in it, even given women are more prone to hypothermia.

I am worried that this would encourage people to go climbing on their own, which is riskier to prevent being responsible for less experienced others.

Was it on his rucksack or hers? @niwtdaaamseems to say hers

Not the same. Those 'patio' comments are always in reference to abusive men.

What had this poor woman done wrong? Why did she deserve to be killed?

At very, very best he was reckless so it's right that he's been found guilty. Fuck him.

Yes. There's a Russian joke (dark humour), Жил-был альпинист. Сам виноват ("There once was an alpinist. His own fault.")

I dont get how he got a suspended sentence ? Surely he must have known she was in danger from being left alone on a mountain! He was an experienced climber FFS.I wonder what the sentence would be if the other way around .Also her Mum piping up .Seems really weird all round to me

But unless he physically kills her, then the responsibility lies with her.

He was not her carer, she was not a child.
She made the conscious decision to do it and felt she was “sufficiently experienced, adequately prepared, and well equipped”.

If she had tripped over and cracked her head open - would that have been his fault or not?

Surely someone dying is not your responsibility unless there was actual negligence but things like wearing soft boots or her not using her own blanket is not his doing, they were her choices that she made.

The case does look dodgy as fuck but what stands out for me is that he summitted the mountain anyway, leaving his girlfriend to die of cold and exposure a few metres beneath him. Her life meant less to him than finishing his climb - she was a sacrifice he was prepared to make. Twice, as he'd done it to a previous girlfriend too. He sounds like an obsessed psycho. At best.

I'm a regular walker and have done the Pennine Way. Your description of the male/female stereotypes couldn't be further from my own experience. Men often insist they know the way and that's where the problem starts because they aren't always right but won't listen.

Even as an ordinary fell walker in the relatively benign conditions of the UK we carry clothing, a bivvy bag and a foil blanket. She either didn't have that stuff, and you'd want more in Alpine winter conditions, or it wasn't used.

She wasn't shod or clothed for the conditions at the outset.

At best he was careless and I don't find negligence manslaughter that surprising as a verdict.

I might though wonder whether he was affected by fatigue or altitude sickness himself and not acting rationally.

No. Sometimes in law there is responsibility/duty of care.

Not defending him as think he is guilty AF but apparently for the route they chose, you ascend one way and down the other. So he had no choice but to summit and descend the other way down the mountain.

Maybe he would also have been in danger if he stayed so the best hope for both of them was to leave her? She was also experienced so she would have known it was a dangerous climb.

Not if she'd gone into hypothermic shock and was incapable of doing those things for herself - which she clearly wasn't, otherwise she'd have done him. If someone goes into a life-threatening state beside you and you fail to act to help them, when you reasonably could, then presumably you'd be at risk of a manslaughter charge too. Which seems fair enough to me.

Also the fact that she was wearing the wrong shoes suggests she very much was inexperienced and didn't know what she was doing. Climbing and hiking are VERY different. Lots of people mountaineer without doing steep and technically difficult climbs. He knew what he was doing - she didn't.

Some more details in the local coverage. Including that he left a previous girlfriend on the mountain - she survived.

Experienced hiker would mean she was fit and good in the hills. A winter ascent is of that peak is mountaineering territory.

They always do, but I disagree on being desperate. They just think the previous victim is a liar, exagerating, their man wouldn´t hurt a fly etc etc. My mum´s cousin was beaten to a pulp by her husband. After the divorce he got together with another woman, who knew the whole story by the way, from several sources, and was a LAWYER. It would never happen to her, because [insert reason]. Guess what, she got beaten up to a pulp too. Yep, he will get a new girlfriend an so will that South African athlete who shot his girlfriend through the bathroom door. They line up.

The biwak sack was in her rucksack. He claims she did not tell him about it but on another occasion he said he knew about it.
https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/grossglockner-bergsteiger-nach-tod-der-freundin-vor-gericht,VBcMhM4

Biwaksack und Rettungsdecke im Rucksack der Toten
Schließlich habe der Mann seine Freundin um zwei Uhr nachts – bei minus 8 Grad und stürmischen Windgeschwindigkeiten von bis zu 74 km/h – knapp unterhalb des Gipfels "schutzlos, entkräftet, unterkühlt und desorientiert" zurückgelassen, wie die Staatsanwaltschaft Innsbruck schreibt. Und das, ohne sie an einen geschützten Platz zu bringen und sie möglichst warm einzupacken.

Bivouac sack and emergency blanket in the dead woman's rucksack
Finally, at two o'clock in the morning – in temperatures of minus 8 degrees and stormy winds of up to 74 km/h – the man left his girlfriend just below the summit ‘defenceless, exhausted, hypothermic and disoriented’, according to the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office. And he did so without taking her to a sheltered place and wrapping her up as warmly as possible.

And in another article:

Auf Nachfrage gibt der Angeklagte an, keinen Biwaksack mitgehabt zu haben: "Ich besitze keinen Biwaksack." Der Richter wundert sich, wie Thomas P. mit einer Notsituation umgehen wollte.

When asked, the defendant states that he did not have a bivouac sack with him: ‘I don't own a bivouac sack.’ The judge wonders how Thomas P. intended to deal with an emergency situation.

Ok that seems relevant

He is found guilty of manslaughter.
He gets a sentence of 5 months imprisonment which is suspended for 3 years and a fine of £8400.
Heartbreaking for those who loved her.
😡

You see determined to believe that she was independent, responsible, making her own choices, etc.

Is this because you don't like to believe how vulnerable women can be in relationships with men?
Are you mistaking your blaming her "poor choices" for a feminist stance?

That sounds like the same bloke who got with one of my relatives. She believed he was a nice guy and had been wronged by his ex - who had left him while she was pregnant. The ex said he was abusive and lo and behold he did turn out to be an abusive prick who my relative had to call the police to get rid of in the end. Then he moved onto a lawyer and had a baby with her almost immediately.

If a man has what he claims is a 'psycho ex', I tend to err on the side of thinking they're the psycho.

Nicci French wrote a thriller with exactly this plot.
His behaviour is extremely suspicious and he has got off very lightly. Twice!

That's not how manslaughter works. You don't have to physically kill someone to be responsible for their death. He was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter - he called mountain rescue but didn't tell them it was an emergency, and then fucked off to summit. He was negligent and reckless - manslaughter.

But she likely wasn’t in hypothermic shock when he left her - again something that can’t be proven.

But it was her call to wear the boots she wore - so why is that being used as an argument in court.

She was an experienced mountaineer and chose not to bring better boots or more food etc - that is not on him and is being used to try and manipulate the jury into believing he was responsible for her, when he’s not.
Even her own mum has said, she was not forced and was intelligent and experienced.

And his argument is that he did help - he literally went to get help and called emergency services.

There are things we can judge him on based on his actions once she became unwell but he is not responsible for making her climb the mountain or what she chose to wear or bring.