Climber, 39, who left his girlfriend to die on an Austrian mountain is found guilty of manslaughter

A mountain climber who left his girlfriend to die at the top of a freezing mountain has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Thomas Plamberger, 39, appeared in court on Thursday after his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner, 33, died just 150ft below the 12,460ft Grossglockner summit as temperatures dropped to minus 20C in January last year.

At his trial, which began today in Innsbruck, he was accused of leaving Gurtner “exhausted, hypothermic and confused” while he went to get help.

‘I’m incredibly sorry,’ Plamberger said at the beginning of his nearly two-hour interrogation before Judge Norbert Hofer. He said he “loves” his girlfriend and they “always plan their tours together.”

The defendant repeatedly emphasized that he ‘did not have any mountaineering training’ and therefore could not play the role of mountain guide to Gurtner.

‘I educated myself, for example, with videos,’ he said. He claimed that his girlfriend was almost as knowledgeable and skilled in mountaineering as he was.

“I may have made more rounds, but he knew exactly what he was getting into,” he told the packed courtroom attended by about 50 media representatives.

Plamberger said his girlfriend told him, ‘Go, go now!’ He claimed he shouted. After spending an hour and a half with him in freezing conditions.

However, Judge Norbert Hofer found the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Gurtner’s body inconsistent with Plamberger’s statements.

Following the guilty verdict, Plamberger was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment, suspended for 3 years, and fined £8,400.

It was also claimed that the experienced mountaineer left his ex-girlfriend on the mountain ‘after a heated argument in Grossglockner in the winter’.

Prosecutors said he left his ex-girlfriend alone on the mountain in pitch darkness after she complained about the difficulty of the climb.

This is breaking news. More to follow.