Jail for German killer who collected frozen victim’s pension

A man who murdered a German retiree and kept his chopped-up body in a freezer for over a decade to collect his pension is sentenced to life in jail.

Tradesman and junk dealer Josef Szczurek, 56, was convicted of shooting dead the widower identified only as Heinz N. in the old man’s Berlin apartment in late 2006 or early 2007.

Szczurek dismembered the body and placed it into the victim’s own deep freezer, then went on to fraudulently pocket the dead man’s 2,000-euro (about $2,500) a month pension for a decade.

The body was finally discovered when a neighbour reported Heinz N. as missing and police in January 2017 entered the apartment.

The case sparked public revulsion and a nationwide debate about the isolation of many elderly people, especially in big cities.

— AFP