German man accused of murdering British heiress gives account in court
German bouncer accused of murdering British heiress for her money tells court she died in a ‘sex game gone wrong’ after he ‘put a towel around her neck and squeezed’
- Marc Schatzle, 32, on trial accused of murdering Anna Reed, 22, from Yorkshire
- He denies murder, and on Monday gave his account to a court in Switzerland
- Schatzle claims pair were having sex when he put a towel around Miss Reed’s neck ‘as we had done hundreds of times’ before pressing down, killing her
- Prosecutors say that is a lie, and he actually murdered Miss Reed for her money
A German bouncer on trial for the murder of a British heiress has told a Swiss court that she died in a ‘sex game’ during which he put a towel around her neck.
Marc Schatzle, 32, told a judge that 22-year-old Anna Reed – daughter of a wealthy horse breeder from Yorkshire – died as the pair were having sex in the bathroom of their plush hotel in Locano, Switzerland, in the early hours of April 9, 2019.
He claimed he put a towel around Miss Reed’s neck ‘as we had done a hundred times before’ and ‘squeezed it with my hands’ before she suddenly stopped moving.
Prosecutors say that is a fabrication and Schatzle – who was heavily in debt – actually killed Miss Reed to get his hands on her money, having hidden her credit card behind a panel in the hotel elevator so he could retrieve it later.
Anna Reed (pictured with Marc Schatzle before her death) , 22, was found dead in her hotel room in Switzerland, in April 2019
Marc Schatzle, who has denied deliberately killing Miss Reed, is believed to have met Ms Reed in Thailand in February 2019
Giving his version of events in court on Monday, Schatzle said: ‘We had sex on the bathroom floor. I put a towel around Anna’s neck.
‘Then I pressed it with my hands, as we had done a hundred times before,’ he added according to Swiss newspaper Blick.
Miss Reed held on to his wrist, he claimed, then ‘suddenly she stopped moving. Her tongue was sticking out. I tried to reanimate her.’
He claimed to be unable to remember exactly what time this occurred, though previous reports said the couple got back to the hotel around 2am.
It was not until 6.30am that Schatzle went down to the hotel lobby to inform staff that Miss Reed had a ‘medical problem’ before she was discovered dead in the bathroom of their room.
Explaining how her credit card came to be in the elevator, Schatzle said the pair had been messing around as they went back to their room the previous evening.
They had a conversation about her paying for everything, he claims, at which point she took out her credit card and held it away from him.
Schatzle claims he took it from her and – as a joke – placed it behind a lighting panel.
Prosecutors – who are due to present their case later this week – say that is nonsense, and that Schatzle actually hid the card there without Miss Reed’s knowledge intending to return later to retrieve it and drain it of funds.
He was £40,000 in debt, they allege, and knew that Miss Reed had ‘more than £25,000 in her account’.
Other hotel guests have also claimed they heard shouting coming from the couple’s room on the night in question.
One person told The Sun: ‘I heard breaking glass and furniture being pushed noisily around the room
They added: ‘I wanted to go and say something but thought it was too dangerous.’
But the case is far from open and shut, with forensic examiners unable to determine the time of Miss Reed’s death – meaning there is a hole in the prosecutor’s timeline.
The judge criticised evidence-gatherers for that in court, Blick reported, saying it makes it difficult to determine whether Schatzle went straight to hotel staff to report Miss Reed’s death or waited a while afterwards.
Miss Reed had been dating Schatzle for only a few months before she died, having met him in Thailand during a round-the-world trip gifted to her by her millionaire father as a 21st birthday present.
The court heard how she had been spending around £3,000-a-month during the trip, but this ‘jumped considerably’ after she met Schatzle.
On the evening of her death, the couple had shared a £100 bottle of champagne over dinner before returning to their hotel.
They were then pictured smiling on the terrace of their penthouse room just hours before Ms Reed’s death.
Schatzle, who has a ‘Warrior’ tattooed over his eyebrow, worked as a bouncer in various pubs and nightclubs on the Swiss-German border.
One source told a Swiss newspaper at the time: ‘Nobody knows how he could afford all the travel. Something can’t be right.’
Schatzle denies murder and the trial continues.
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