People hold placards reading ‘Tugce, you are not forgotten’ outside the high court in Darmstadt, prior to the opening of the trial against Sanel M.

DPA/Berlin

An 18-year-old told a German court yesterday that he never meant to kill a woman who had just been protecting two teenagers from harassment, a death that sparked a wave of outrage in Germany last year.
Fifty picketers stood in a silent vigil opposite the courthouse in Darmstadt as Sanel M was brought to trial.
His surname has been withheld under German media privacy guidelines.
Tugce Albayrak, 22, suffered a head injury in November when she was knocked to the ground in a parking lot outside a McDonald’s restaurant near Frankfurt.
Two weeks later, just after she turned 23, her coma was declared hopeless and life support was switched off.
“I gave her a slap and she fell over,” the accused said, sniffing as he read a prepared statement. “I am very, very sorry for what I did ... I never expected she would die from it.”
He is charged with assault causing death.
Prosecutors say he hit her face with the palm of his hand, leading to her fall.
Police say Albayrak, a university student of Turkish heritage planning to be a schoolteacher, had earlier scolded the accused and his friends in the restaurant for trying to pick up two inebriated girls.
Albayrak was acclaimed a hero for standing up to thuggery.
“We want to commemorate Tugce’s bravery,” said Murat Capri, organiser of the vigil, on a sidewalk across a multi-lane road from the court.
Prosecutors say that the accused, who has been in custody since the attack, has four previous convictions, including for two dangerous assaults.
The trial is expected to be prolonged, with 10 days over several weeks at the youth court reserved for the hearings.