Pastry chef Bernadette Harbich who tried to poison wealthy farmer ex after convincing him to name her sole heir gets 20 years in prison

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, the court in Korneuburg, Austria, heard.

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.

After the first murder attempt failed, a few months later she persuaded him to eat muffins doped with the date rape drug Rohypnol, and while he was unconscious, she slit his wrists with a Stanley knife to fake his suicide, the police said.

Amazingly, Freidrich survived again after Harbich called paramedics when he regained consciousness.

Freidrich finally removed Harbich from his will in December 2022 when he realised she was trying to kill him for his money. But in a bizarre twist, Freidrich found himself behind bars facing an attempted murder charge when she claimed he had stabbed her.

Harbich told the 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 being charged. It later emerged 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 and tell them that her mother had been stabbed.

Harbich told police she had scared off Freidrich with a gun firing blanks 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 which showed he had been at home six miles away. Harbich was arrested and the entire plot to kill her ex for his cash began to unravel.

She faced two counts of attempted murder and went on trial at the Korneuburg Regional Court.

Prosecutors say that broke Harbich identified multimillionaire Freidrich as the perfect victim when her business began to go under. The unmarried farmer had made a fortune from a business selling agricultural equipment across Europe.

Harbich denied attempted murder but secret letters to her daughter in which she mentioned the crimes and how "no one must ever find out" came to light.

The victim's lawyer, Arthur Machac, said he may never recover from the poisoning, which severely damaged his eyesight.

Harbich was jailed for 20 years on Wednesday, 13th November, after expert Peter Hoffmann diagnosed the defendant with a serious personality problem, a tendency towards manipulation and "sexually inappropriate behaviour".

A chemist also testified that the drugs she had given him were potentially deadly. The victim is now demanding €300,000 in damages from Harbich, whose lawyer is considering appealing the verdict.

Story: NewsX