The clothing donation container where the baby was found in March. Photo: DPA

Mother of eight jailed for smothering baby boy in cellar

Published: 6 Nov 09 11:15 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091106-23081.html

A regional Berlin court on Friday sentenced a 42-year-old woman to eight years in prison for manslaughter after she admitted to smothering her newborn infant.

The woman was found guilty of killing the one-day-old baby boy in her apartment building’s cellar in March.

The baby’s body was discovered in clothing donation container by a worker collecting the clothes.

The mother of eight admitted to killing her baby during the trial, saying his birth came at an inconvenient time.

The defendant had already been sentenced to two years of probation for the attempted murder of another one of her children. In that case she abandoned the baby girl in her cellar, but a neighbour found the child and it was later adopted.

In recent years there have been a number of high-profile cases of infanticide in Germany, with the most notorious involving a woman jailed for 15 years in 2006 for the manslaughter of eight babies.

Sabine Hilschenz, a divorced, unemployed and alcoholic dental assistant from a depressed area of eastern Germany, hid the corpses in buckets, flowerpots and an old fish tank at her parents' home.

In October, the remains of four babies were found in a Berlin apartment following the suicide of their alleged mother. Later the same month a man’s dog found a dead infant along Munich’s Isar River bank.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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#1
13:10 November 6, 2009 by Mistress kitty
Another tragic case where innocent children suffer at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect them. WTF does "his birth came at an inconvenient time" mean. She already has 8 kids, did she not think to use some form of contraception before opening her legs, surely after 8 pregnancies she must know how the process works. I hope she gets everything she deserves and I don't care about what problems she has otherwise. There is simply no excuse, especially not in a developed country like Germany.
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#2
13:18 November 6, 2009 by Orla_inka
Where was the father in all this? Where were the authorities in all this? She tried to kill/abandon an earlier baby - does that not ring alarm bells when she becomes pregnant again?

I watched a programme on RTL where two 15-year olds were having a baby. As she was underage, she was sent to a home after the child was born. The father, who was at the birth and wanted to be part of this baby's life, was only allowed limited access. Both parents seemed to me to be very mature.

This is a bad story. However, to me, it looks like other people should have been involved. It sounds to me, too that this woman cannot be all there mentally.
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#3
13:28 November 6, 2009 by americangirl09
I am enraged. Not only about these women but at the German legal system. This is absolutely appalling! Only 8 years?? Really??? That is how much a child's life is worth??? And 15 years for killing 8 children?? WTF???!!!?? I just don't understand these women. There are millions of women that would die to have a child and cant and then you have these dimwits that finds it inconvenient to have a child at the time. Geez.....
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#4
14:59 November 6, 2009 by 1audgirl
Where I came from, if a pregnant woman has had a prior child taken from her or been under child abuse invesitgation, the child was taken away at the birth hospital. Don't understand why that wouldn't happen here and why is she able to keep the other 8?
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#5
15:48 November 6, 2009 by Tibia
Maybe its post-partum psychosis.

If i recall rightly, for this reason, the law in England has killing of the baby by the mother categorised as manslaughter (which allows a greater range of appropriate sentencing) and not murder. That is, if the killing happens in the first year of the baby's life.

Still, how come no-one appeared to follow up on the fact that this woman was a risk to any future babies, having abandoned a baby before.
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#6
16:01 November 6, 2009 by westvan
However, to me, it looks like other people should have been involved. It sounds to me, too that this woman cannot be all there mentally.
Yes, of course the woman has mental problems but these things often go unnoticed until it's too late. There have been many cases where the Jugendamt or whoever just hadn't bothered to follow up on potentially dangerous situations and the infanticide rate in Germany is quite high.
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#7
16:15 November 6, 2009 by leeza
...the infanticide rate in Germany is quite high.
Source, please?
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#8
18:14 November 6, 2009 by provita67
Where are the Christians in Germany in helping these people?

"Religion pure and undefiled with the God and Father is this, to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation -- unspotted to keep himself from the world." James 1: 27
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