The city court in Prague continues to unravel the story of two women accused of killing the leader of the Kutnohorsk sect. They claim they killed him on his orders. Prosecution and defense experts disagree on whether the woman is sane or not.

Dentist Magdalena Šifferová and retired teacher Irena Stejskalová were members of a sect led by the alleged healer Richard Šiffer for many years. Magdalena is his partner. Irena is his right hand. On October 4 last year, they allegedly killed him on his orders. Then they waited for his body to disappear, because he thought that was what would happen. When his body was still lying in the room after several hours, they finally reported everything to the police.

The case, in which the two women face charges of murder, has been settled by the Prague City Court since April this year. Experts from the fields of psychiatry and psychology are speaking out on this issue today. They tried both the accused and the leader Richard himself. And the main question of the day was – did the woman retain the power of confession and control at the time of the crime?

“He acts like a programmed robot. She acted under duress,” said Max Kašparů, a forensic expert from the field of psychiatry, who prepared the opinion for the defense, speaking to the defendant dentist Šifferová. According to him, the woman was suffering from what is called an artificial delusion. This means that she was under the influence total someone who has delusional thinking.

Richard’s “Healer” convinced others of his absolute speciality, that he was a god or that he could transmigrate to other dimensions. “My conclusion is that the assessed ability of control (Magdalena Šifferová) was completely lost at the time the crime was committed. I say this with the knowledge that a case is being solved here and will go down in legal, psychiatric and psychological history,” concluded psychiatrist Max Kašparů.

The second psychiatrist Ilja Žukov, who prepared the opinion of the second accused Irena Stejskála for the defense, came to the same conclusion.

“Student. He told her that she had pancreatic cancer and she was going through the metastatic process. And immediately he told her that he had cleared her of everything and she was fine. Even at my examination, she believed it. At the same time , it is complete nonsense,” said forensic expert Zhukov as evidence that the accused teacher was still suffering from delusions.

He added that after his arrest, the former teacher was held in custody waiting for Richard to “fulfill his promise and take him elsewhere”.

The forensic expert also noted that he had never encountered a similar case in practice. “It’s unique in the world,” said Zhukov.

However, Monika Holečková, the forensic expert in psychiatry who prepared the opinion for the prosecution, fundamentally disagreed with the defense experts’ conclusions. According to him, this is not imaginary. According to Holečková, Magdalena Šifferová only suffers from mild mental adjustment disorder with symptoms of anxiety-depression.

“This leads to the unequivocal forensic conclusion that this mental disorder does not affect his recognition or control abilities,” said the expert. In his opinion, the fact that Richard’s teacher partner depended on him, that he abused him physically, mentally and sexually, should be considered as mitigating circumstances.

According to psychiatrist Holečková, the woman was completely under his influence, believing everything he told her about herself. For example, when she claimed that she was the lover of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who carried out gruesome experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz, he also believed her.

According to the expert, the difference between belief and delusion is that he doesn’t identify with it. So he didn’t feel that way. “We cannot call it a delusion that someone believes in their religion,” added Monika Holečková.

He also found no reason to be delusional in the second defendant, Irena Stejskála. According to him, he is completely healthy mentally. Richard Šiffer was also able to manipulate him skillfully, and he also completely trusted him and considered him a healer with supernatural abilities.

About a hundred people belong to the community around Richard Siffer. Over the years, people from all over the country have come to Kutná Hora, where he is seeking treatment. But he had a close circle of people whom he manipulated in such a way that on his orders they isolated themselves from their families, switched to members of other sects he assigned them to, or even mutilated themselves.

At the same time, Richard Šiffer was making a lot of money from his followers. They paid not only for his treatment, but also for other assistance. Sometimes it involves hundreds of thousands of dollars. After his death, the police found more than ninety million crowns belonging to him.

According to psychologist Karel Netík, who prepared an opinion on Richard Šiffer’s personality for the defense, he was egocentric and aggressive. “Her dominant values ​​in life are herself, her health and her interests,” says the expert.