Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing received a suspended jail sentence Wednesday after admitting he delayed the burial of his wife, whose body lay rotting in their London mansion for two months.
The 49-year-old millionaire said in a statement read to a London court that he had been unable to "confront the reality" of the death of his US-born wife Eva, 48, and tried to act as if it had not happened.
Sentencing him to 10 months imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson told Rausing his behaviour was "an illustration of the utterly destructive effects of drug misuse".
Rausing pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife and to a separate charge of driving a vehicle while unfit through drugs.
He received a suspended sentence of two months for the second charge and was disqualified from driving for two years.
Rausing must also complete a drug treatment programme.
He was originally arrested last month on suspicion of murdering his wife, after police found her body in an advanced state of decomposition under a pile of clothes and bin bags at their luxury home on July 9.
A post-mortem found that Eva Rausing, one of Britain's richest women, had died two months earlier and had drugs in her system, including cocaine.
"I do not have a very coherent recollection of the events leading up to and since Eva's death," Rausing said in a statement to police after his arrest, which was read out to the court.
"Safe to assure you that I have never wished her or done her any harm. I did not supply her with drugs. I have been very traumatised since her death,"
he said.
"I do not know what caused her death. I did not feel able to confront the reality of her death. I do not feel, with the benefit of hindsight, that following her death I acted rationally.
"I tried to carry on as if her death had not happened and batted away any inquiries about her."
He added: "I believe, in the period since Eva died, I have suffered some form of breakdown."
At the previous hearing on July 18, Rausing was ordered to reside at a psychiatric hospital. Photographs in the British press this week showed him looking dishevelled while being accompanied by a helper on a shopping trip.
The Rausings, who have four teenage children, had struggled publicly with drug addiction for many years and were known for their generous donations to addiction charities.
The couple first met at an addiction clinic and were charged in 2008 after Eva tried to take crack cocaine and heroin into a function at the US embassy in London.
The Rausing family is worth ?4.3 billion pounds ($6.7 billion, 5.5 billion euros), according to this year's Sunday Times Rich List.
Rausing's father Hans, 86, developed the Tetra Pak business founded by his own father into a multi-billion dollar operation that revolutionised the packaging of food and drink, but sold his stake in 1995.
The defendant's father moved to Britain with his wife Marit in 1980 in order to avoid Sweden's high tax rates, and they live on a vast estate in East Sussex, southern England.
In a statement after an earlier hearing, the family said: "Her death, and the details of subsequent events, are a reminder of the distorted reality of drug addiction.
"They desperately hope that their dear son, Hans, may find the strength to begin the long and hard journey of detoxification and rehabilitation." (AFP)
<한글 기사>
'경악스런 실체' 재벌가 아내의 의문사
숨진 아내의 시신을 두 달간 방치한 혐의로 기소된 영국의 억만장자 한스 크리스티안 라우싱(49)이 1일(현지시간) 영국 법정에서 유죄를 인정 했다.
익명을 요청한 사법부의 한 대변인은 에바 라우싱(48)의 남편이자 유명 다국적 포장업체 테트라팩(TetraPak)의 설립자 아들인 한스 크리스티안이 이날 잉글랜드 아 일워스 법원에서 시신 방치 혐의를 인정했다고 밝혔다.
영국 경찰은 지난 7월 초 마약 소지 혐의로 한스 크리스티안을 체포한 뒤 자택을 수색하던 중 여러 벌의 옷과 쓰레기 봉투 밑에서 에바 라우싱의 시신을 발견했다. 시신 부검 결과 에바의 사망 시점은 2달 전이었던 5월 7일로 추정됐다.
이날 법정에 소환된 한스 크리스티안은 "아내의 사망 이후 정신 질환을 앓게 됐 다"며 "에바의 사망 시점까지 그리고 그 이후의 사건들에 대해 명확한 기억이 없지만 그녀에게 해를 끼치려는 의도는 전혀 없었다"고 밝혔다.
그는 또 "마치 아내가 사망하지 않은 것처럼 살아가려고(carry on) 노력했으며 에바의 가족 및 친구들이 그녀의 안부를 물을 때 회피해왔다"면서 "에바의 죽음에 엄청난 충격을 받아 그녀가 죽었다는 사실을 뒤늦게서야 깨닫게 됐고, 이성적으로 행동했다고 생각하진 않는다"고 말했다.
하지만 그는 성명에서 "에바에게 마약을 주지 않았고 사망 원인도 모른다"고 밝 혀 살해 혐의에 대해서는 선을 그었다.
에바와 한스 크리스티안 부부는 마약 퇴치를 위해 수백만 달러를 기부하면서도 정작 자신들은 극심한 약물 중독에 시달려 온 것으로 알려져 있다. 에바는 지난 200 8년 코카인과 헤로인을 가방에 숨긴 채 런던 소재 미 대사관 건물로 진입하려다 적발된 바 있다.
현재 한스 크리스티안은 정신 병원에서 치료를 받고 있고 에바의 사망 관련 혐의에 대한 판결은 향후 재판에서 결정될 예정이다.
