Woman found guilty of fatally infecting neighbour with COVID-19

A woman in Austria has been found guilty of fatally infecting her neighbour with COVID-19 , her second pandemic-related conviction in a year, according to local media.

A judge sentenced the 54-year-old on Thursday to four months’ suspended imprisonment and an 800-euro fine ($886.75) for grossly negligent homicide.

The victim, who was also a cancer patient, died of pneumonia that was caused by the coronavirus in 2021, according to the Austrian news agency APA. A virological report showed that the virus DNA matched both the deceased and the 54-year-old woman, proving that the defendant “almost 100 percent” transmitted it, an expert told the court.

“I feel sorry for you personally, I think that something like this has probably happened hundreds of times," the judge said in court on Thursday. "But you are unlucky that an expert has determined with almost absolute certainty that it was an infection that came from you.”

While the judge issued the sentence Thursday, APA reported that the verdict isn't yet final. The names of the victim and defendant were not released in line with strict Austrian privacy rules.

The woman was convicted of a COVID-related offense last summer, APA had reported. The agency said she was sentenced to three months’ suspended imprisonment for intentionally endangering people through communicable diseases. But she was acquitted on the grossly negligent homicide charge at that time.

This week, the judge heard statements from the deceased's family, who said there had been contact in a stairwell between the neighbours on December 21, 2001 — when the defendant would already have known she had COVID-19. But she denied the meeting, saying she was too sick to get out of bed that day. She also said she believed she had bronchitis, which she typically gets every year.

But the woman's doctor told police that the defendant had tested positive with a rapid test and told him that she “certainly won’t let herself be locked up" after the result.