22-year-old man convicted of passing on deadly ecstasy

More than two years after the drug-related death of a 16-year-old in Hamburg, the district court in Harburg found a defendant guilty of illegally dispensing narcotics. The 22-year-old was sentenced to a fine of 800 euros under juvenile criminal law on Wednesday, a court spokesman said.

He also had to have regular talks with a drug counselor for six months. He had to pay the fine to an aid facility for people suffering from addiction. The defendant accepted the verdict.

According to the court, in September 2020 he gave the young people two ecstasy tablets at a party in the Winterhude district. Shortly thereafter, the girl died of drug-induced hyperthermia (overheating). The guilt for the tragic death was not the subject of the proceedings. The spokesman said it was self-harm.

The 16-year-old was not entirely inexperienced with drugs. She wanted to take the pills of her own accord and urged the defendant to give her the second, it said. He first tried to dissuade her, which the lay judge judged in his favor. After taking the second tablet, the girl could not have been saved even if the emergency services had been alerted more quickly, according to a forensic medical examination. The 22-year-old is said to have bought the pills from a 21-year-old co-defendant whose case has been separated.