Pastry chef accused of trying to murder besotted farmer with poisoned muffins will go on trial in Austria

Besotted victim Andreas Friedrich, 41, signed over his entire €3m estate to 32-year-old Bernadette Harbich after she tricked him into changing his will by claiming he had made her pregnant, say prosecutors.

Harbich, known as the 'Ice Lady' for her cold-blooded methods, first gave Friedrich a drink made with magic mushrooms which did not kill him, but left him blind, say prosecutors. The would-be killer, say prosecutors, had promised to have sex with him if he got high.

Then, she persuaded him to eat muffins doped with the date rape drug Rohypnol, and while he was unconscious, slit his wrists with a Stanley knife to fake his suicide, say police. Amazingly, Freidrich survived again after Harbich called paramedics when he came to.

Besotted Freidrich finally removed Harbich from his will in December 2022 when he revealed the truth, judges will hear when the trial begins at Korneuburg Regional Court on November 5.

But in a bizarre twist, Freidrich found himself behind bars facing an attempted murder charge when she claimed he had stabbed her. Harbich told police that he had come to her home in the middle of the night begging her to take him back and had stabbed her when she rejected him.

Astonishingly, Friedrich was jailed on remand for two months while police investigated the claim before being released in July last year (2023) without charge.

It later emerged, local media reported on October 20, that Harbich had stabbed herself to get back at her ex.

Hard-hearted Harbich had even roped in her 10-year-old daughter to the plot when she made her call an emergency police number saying her mother had been stabbed.

Harbich told police she had scared off Freidrich with a blank-firing gun after he shouted: "If I can't have you, then no one will."

Friedrich was only freed when his defence team gave police records from his Amazon Alexa digital assistant for the blind which showed he had been at home six miles away.

Harbich, prosecutors will say, was arrested and the entire plot to kill her ex for his cash began to unravel. Prosecutors will say that broke Harbich identified multi-millionaire Freidrich as the perfect victim when her business began to go bust.

The unmarried farmer had made a fortune from a business selling agricultural equipment across Europe.

Harbich denies attempted murder but is heavily incriminated by secret letters to her daughter, where she allegedly talks about the crimes and how "no one must ever find out".

The victim's lawyer, Arthur Machac, said he may never recover from the poisoning, which damaged the nerves linking his brain to his eyes. He said: "He is doing terribly. The destruction of the optic nerve also affects the brain."

Harbic's defence lawyer Sascha Flatz told local media: "My client saved his life by alerting the emergency doctor. She certainly did not want to kill him."

Story: NewsX