A 16-year-old boy received a seven-year jail sentence for murder on Thursday for stabbing a schoolmate aged 14 to death last September in a classroom scuffle, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa). Trial judge Andreas Binder-Hautz said that at the school in west Vienna, a "tragedy" had happened for which there had really not been the slightest reason. It had started with a harmless argument among classmates. The judge then said of the 16-year-old that "the avalanche started when he stood up and pulled the knife. His latent violent tendency broke through on negligible grounds. The 'why' will presumably stay in the dark." Justifying the murder charge - which the 16-year-old denied - the judge said he had deliberately stabbed the victim in the upper body. The attack had been "quick and violent." The knife had not been something "one could dismiss as a plaything for showing off." There were indications that "the accused reckoned with death, and accepted it", said the judge. During the trial, psychiatric reports had spoken of "a disrupted personality development" as a consequence of "the father's style of upbringing." The boy's defence lawyer said after the sentencing that he was considering an appeal. The fatal attack caused a wave of dismay throughout Austria last September, with many questions about increasing brutality and violence in schools. --SP 23 40 Local Time 20 40 GMT
