Austrian Convicted for 'Liquid Ecstasy' Tragedy
An Austrian man was sentenced on Thursday to two years in prison over the death of a woman in his car who mistook the drug "liquid ecstasy" for water.
The 27-year-old Natalie D. and a girlfriend were given a lift from a nightclub in Vienna by the 36-year-old defendant and another man in the early hours of April 1.
The man told the thirsty woman she could drink "something in the back", meaning some fruit juice, but instead she took a gulp from a plastic bottle she thought contained water.
In fact it was gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), otherwise known as liquid ecstasy, an intoxicant popular in the club scene and also used as a "date rape" narcotic.
Natalie tried to vomit and then fell asleep in the car. When the others were unable to wake her they carried her to her friend's flat.
"After 10 minutes we couldn't feel a pulse any more. We panicked and call the ambulance," the defendant said. She died in hospital five days later having never regained consciousness.
Presiding judge Hannelore Pilz called the woman's death a "tragic accident" and said the defendant "had left a highly dangerous liquid more or less lying around" in his car.
The defendant, convicted of causing death by dangerous negligence, said the death was a "disaster that I now have to answer for".
Source: Agence France Presse
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