A woman secretly gives birth to a child in the toilet and just lets it die. The judges rated the act as manslaughter by omission.
Duisburg (dpa / lnw) - The Duisburg district court has sentenced a 24-year-old woman to five years and six months in prison for manslaughter by omission. The German secretly gave birth to a girl in October 2021, but is said to have refused any help immediately after the birth. The child ended up suffocating in the toilet bowl in the apartment of her then-boyfriend's parents in Hamminkeln.
During the trial, the defendant explained that she was unable to lift the child out of the toilet after the painful birth due to circulatory problems. However, the presiding judge said in the verdict: "One reach into the toilet would have been enough and the child would have survived."
With the verdict, the Duisburg district court on Wednesday went a year beyond the request of the public prosecutor. The defense attorney for the accused had requested an acquittal for her client.
