Mönchengladbach (dpa / lnw) - A father has been sentenced to four years in prison for abusing his daughter when she was a baby. The mother, who was also accused of omission, received a two-year suspended sentence at the Mönchengladbach district court on Monday. The parents were also sentenced by the lay judges to pay their daughter damages. The 28-year-old father should therefore pay 15,000 euros, the mother 5,000 euros. Parents lost custody years ago. The five-year-old girl lives in a foster family.
The 28-year-old has confessed to hitting and biting his daughter five years ago shortly after she was born and then regularly for seven months. The girl was badly injured and suffered a fractured skull. According to the court, the 26-year-old mother initially allowed the attacks and did nothing at first. She then confided in the police in February 2018. As a result, the parents lost custody. The youth welfare office took the girl into care.
The jury went well beyond the penalties demanded by the public prosecutor's office: the prosecutor had demanded three years for the father and a shorter suspended sentence for the mother. The public prosecutor's office rated the man's confession positively. The presiding judge saw it differently. The confession does not differ from the information given to the police and is therefore of little value. The judgments are not final. The man's defense attorney said he would appeal.
