The mum of a man killed by a drug-crazed aristocrat wants to fight for a change in the law which has seen the culprit freed on appeal.
Alex Morgan – who had a Scots father and studied at Moray boarding school Gordonstoun – was killed by art gallery owner , 34, while visiting him on a skiing holiday five years ago.
But a Swiss appeal court last week reduced von Vertes’s earlier manslaughter conviction for bludgeoning Alex, 23, with a candelabra, stabbing him with glass and forcing a candle down his throat.
Judges accepted von Vertes was suffering from “self-inflicted insanity” as a result of the cocktail of booze, ketamine, cocaine and sleeping pills he had taken.
Alex’s mum Katja Faber, 56, told the Record she has since received an outpouring of support to fight for a change in the law in Switzerland.
She said: “To have society acknowledge that a wrong was done and my child’s life was worth something to then being told ‘no his killer is actually only guilty of getting high’ – that’s difficult.
“Clearly there is something wrong with that law that needs to be changed and I’m considering being the one who attempts to change it.”
Von Vertes’s trial heard he was in a psychotic state with paranoid delusions when he killed Alex at his parents’ chalet in Lake Zurich in 2014.
He said he thought Alex, who he met while studying in London, was a green alien who was trying to kill him.
Von Vertes was convicted of “voluntary manslaughter” in 2017 but appealed the 12-year sentence he was handed in November.
At last week’s appeal in Zurich – where prosecutors also argued for a tougher punishment – von Vertes was cleared of both charges and given the maximum possible sentence for self-inflicted insanity – three years.
As he has already spent three years in custody, he will be freed after therapy for drug addiction.
Katja, a former criminal barrister, said: “The court said he’s not responsible for killing Alex but they found him guilty of getting himself in such a state that he didn’t know what he’s doing.
"It’s essentially a misdemeanour.
“They are telling me, ‘No one is responsible for killing your son’.
"It’s almost as if he is collateral damage. He knew what he was doing and willingly took those drugs. I don’t think that’s an excuse.
“I think our society needs to take stock. If you can drink and take drugs, there should be an equal responsibility which says, if you commit a crime which is so dangerous that somebody is hurt or killed, then you also have to take responsibility.
“You can’t just say, ‘Oh I was off my head’ and walk away.”
