Overview

• Court-appointed psychologist Max Steller testified he could find no indicators of truth in the fellow inmate’s statement and pointed to major contradictions in the account.
• Steller said the witness’s psychiatric disorder and prior lies in official contexts heighten the risk of false statements, including the possibility of an imagined confession.
• Despite the assessment, the 25-year-old informant again alleged the defendant admitted a sexually motivated attack, knocking Hanna unconscious and throwing her into the Prien.
• The original March 2024 judgment—nine years’ youth detention based largely on this testimony—was overturned on revision, and the retrial is being held in Laufen with the accused free pending the outcome.
• Prosecutors continue to pursue a homicide case alleging sexual motive as the defense argues an accident, with further hearing days scheduled through December 19; media claims about withheld investigative information remain unproven in court.