Neuchâtel doctors face trial over Valangin axe attacker escape

Préfargier psychiatric hospital

Three psychiatrists are back in court in Neuchâtel over the Valangin axe attack of April 2018, that left four people seriously injured.

The attacker had escaped from a secure psychiatric unit in Préfargier before assaulting the four victims over two days.

Prosecutors argue three doctors failed to properly assess and monitor the patient and took too long to alert the authorities after the man escaped. 

The defence maintains the violence was impossible to predict and says the doctors followed accepted psychiatric practices, noting the attacker later died by suicide in prison. 

A verdict is expected by the end of the year. 
 

 

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