Romania: Man gets prison for neighbour’s fence electrocution

BUCHAREST, Romania – A Romanian court has sentenced a man to five years in prison for the death of a neighbour who was electrocuted in July after she touched a fence he erected around his house to secure his animals.

The Alba Iulia Court of Appeal on Monday convicted the 34-year-old man of murder in the death of a 69-year-old woman who touched the unmarked 220-volt fence in the village of Poiana Vadului. The ruling is final.

Prosecutors had appealed the verdict of a lower court, which found the man guilty of manslaughter and gave him a suspended sentence.

The court said in its ruling that the man had connected the fence to the power supply then left it unattended without identifying it, contravening the operating instructions. The woman was killed instantly.