The incident occurred during a hunt in Fentange in September 2016. The victim was sitting on an apartment balcony nearly 600 metres away with four others when she suddenly started bleeding from her right cheek.
On Tuesday morning, the victim told the court that she heard a squeaking noise and then her vision went dark. She explained she had no idea what happened. In the immediate aftermath, her friends heard the shot and kept her awake until the arrival of paramedics and a doctor. According to the victim, one of the paramedics saw the bullet inside the wound. She has since had a number of operations and can still not chew on her right-hand side.
The victim told the court that she knew the defendant did not intentionally shoot her, but she is still incapable of going into the woods these days.
The court doctor explained that the woman had been hit in the cheek from a distance of around 570 metres. At first, the paramedics took her to the Centre hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), after which she was transferred to a specialist clinic in Belgium. The wound was not life-threatening, as it did not hit her neck or elsewhere in her head. However, the victim was unable to work for five and a half months.
In the initial police report, officers claimed they had encountered five hunters shortly after the incident. Three of the hunters had been shooting at wild boars. The police officers seized bullets and confirmed that they were the same as the bullet found to have injured the woman. Four shots targeted at the boars missed the animals, two of which belonged to the defendant.
One of the hunters stressed that he told the hunter to be careful, as the land was flat. Hunters usually know the rules, notably that hunters should never shoot over the horizon. The hunter told the court he believed the boar had been hit until they encountered the police officers.
The defendant admitted to having shot that day, explaining that he saw a bullet had hit the ground, as he saw the dust. He did not know what happened with the bullet after that, but highlighted his regret in court.
The trial will conclude on Wednesday.
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