Hobby hairdresser convicted over gun mishap

A 50-year-old woman from Lower Austria has received a suspended jail sentence for shooting an elderly woman by accident.

The 77-year-old woman was at the offender’s home to have her hair done before attending a birthday party. She was hit by a bullet into the neck while sitting under a hood drier when the hobby hairdresser showed the weapon – a 22-calibre revolver she was given by her husband – to a friend.

The incident happened in a house in Egelsee near Sieghartskirchen in January. “I’m not angry with her anymore,” the pensioner – who made a full recovery – said in court in St. Pölten about the relationship with her friend yesterday (Thurs).

The woman – whose husband has a firearms licence – was given a suspended seven-month in prison term for grievous bodily harm. She was also ordered to pay a fine of 720 Euros and 4,500 Euros in compensation to the elderly woman she injured.

Police in Wels-Land district, Upper Austria, said on Monday they arrested a woman for stabbing her boyfriend during an argument. The 26-year-old called an ambulance after the man, 20, lost consciousness after the attack which happened at their flat last Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for a prison in Wels said that a man suspected of killing his ex-partner’s daughter, 14, had committed suicide in custody. His 19-year-old son, who is accused of carrying out the homicide in Bad Ischl with him in July, remains behind bars.