GERMANY: MANUELA & DANIEL RUDA ARE SENTENCED TO 15 AND 13 YEARS IN PSYCHIATRIC WARD FOR STABBING A FRIEND TO DEATH IN SATANIC RITUAL

Record ID: 647149

  • Title: GERMANY: MANUELA & DANIEL RUDA ARE SENTENCED TO 15 AND 13 YEARS IN PSYCHIATRIC WARD FOR STABBING A FRIEND TO DEATH IN SATANIC RITUAL
  • Date: 31st January 2002
  • Summary: BOCHUM, GERMANY (JANUARY 31, 2002)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE / SCU EXTERIOR OF COURT BUILDING/ SIGN 0.08 2. WIDE OF MEDIA OUTSIDE COURTROOM 0.19 3. CLOSE OF MANUELA RUDA / ZOOM OUT TO HER, TWO LAWYERS AND HUSBAND DANIEL RUDA (ON LEFT) IN COURTROOM 0.32 4. CLOSE OF DANIEL RUDA 0.39 5. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS / PAN TO DANIEL RUDA (2 SHOTS) 0.55 6. VARIOUS, DANIEL RUDA LOOKING AT CAMERAS AND LAUGHING /MANUELA AND DANIEL RUDA KISSING BEFORE THEY ARE ESCOURTED FROM COURT 1.31 7. SLV JUDGE ARNJO KERSTINGTOMBROKE WALKS INTO COURTROOM ,SITTING DOWN FOR PRESS 1.40 8. WIDE OF CAMERAS AND MEDIA 1.45 9. SCU SOUNDBITE (German) JUDGE ARNJO KERSTINGTOMBROKE SAYING: "We followed the opinion of Prof. Dr Leihgraf who said that during the crime they must have been able to be in control of the situation at least to a limited degree. However, the capability to be able to control the situation was considerably impaired. Therefore one must consider that by being so impaired they were closer to have had diminished responsibility rather than having full responsibility for the crime." 2.15 10. SCU MAN WEARING CRUCIFIX/ CROSS/ PEOPLE STANDING AROUND 2.24 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (German) MANUELA RUDA'S LAWYER SIEGMUND BENECKEN SAYING: "We are not unhappy about the verdict. They were accused of murder and anytime when someone is accused of murder there is a possibility that the verdict will be life in prison. This we achieved (that they did not get that verdict). However, the court ruling did not convince the defence. The court's verdict was partly different to the state attorney's plea. I also cannot imagine that the verdict will hold if it is reviewed in Karlsruhe (seat of federal court of appeals)." 3.00 12. VARIOUS, GROUP OF PEOPLE TALKING (2 SHOTS) 3.08 BERLIN, GERMANY (RECENT)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. VARIOUS VIEWS OF 'BILD' TABLOID ARTICLE AND PHOTOS OF CONVICTED COUPLE AND MAN THEY KILLED (4 SHOTS) 3.36 BOCHUM, GERMANY (FILE - JULY 12, 2001)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. VARIOUS OF DANIEL RUDA ARRIVING BY HELICOPTER AFTER BEING ARRESTED/ BEING ESCORTED TO WAITING POLICE VAN BY MASKED POLICEMEN (3 SHOTS) 4.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 15th February 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOCHUM, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA6VS6JL3FDW4ATF1B3BFDOR9WJ
  • Story Text: A couple who killed a friend with 66 stabs in a
    Satanic ritual have been given long prison sentences in a case
    that has fascinated Germany with bizarre details of
    blood-sucking and devil worship.



    A judge in the western town of Bochum sentenced
    Daniel Ruda to 15 years and Manuela Ruda to13 years in a
    psychiatric ward on Thursday (January 31).

    Daniel Ruda, a 26-year-old former car parts salesman and
    his 23-year-old wife Manuela had confessed to the killing in
    their apartment surrounded by human skulls, cemetery lights,
    scalpels and incense.

    They have shown no remorse, saying the devil ordered them
    to send him a human sacrifice because he wanted a "court
    jester".

    The case has attracted strong media interest in Britain as
    well because Manuela said she found a taste for vampirism
    during a visit to London where she attended bite parties at
    which people voluntarily had blood sucked from their veins.

    The two have fanned the media interest with defiant
    behaviour in court, making rude gestures, rolling their eyes
    manically and sticking their tongues out.

    Manuela, a former high school student who drifted into the
    Gothic scene after she said the devil contacted her when she
    was 14, slept in a coffin in their apartment.

    She met Daniel after responding to his advertisement in a
    heavy metal magazine that read: Pitch black vampire seeks
    princess of darkness who hates everything and everyone.

    The dead man, a 33-year-old colleague of Daniel Rudas, was
    found in their apartment covered in knife wounds and had
    ascalpel protruding from his stomach. A pentagram, the sign of
    the Devil, had been carved into his chest.

    The couple spent a week on the run after the murder last
    July, driving around Germany and failing several times to
    commit suicide. They were arrested after being spotted at a
    petrol station in Jena.

    During that week Daniel had bought a chainsaw sayng he did
    not want to be empty-handed when the Devil called again.

    The court heard during the trial how the two had launched
    themselves into a world of devil worship, inciting each other
    to commit violence.

    Daniel said he had merely been a tool of the devil. "If
    you run someone over with a car, you don't prosecute the car,"
    he said at one point.



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