Overview
- The Landgericht Hechingen on October 6 convicted the 35-year-old of manslaughter and imposed a five-year-six-month prison term.
- According to the court, she secretly gave birth at home in Albstadt, put the newborn in the washing machine with soiled clothes and closed the drum.
- While she was taken to a clinic for heavy bleeding that evening, her partner—unaware of the baby—started the machine, and the infant died from severe skull trauma.
- Prosecutors had sought eight years and the defense three, the judge called the motive unclear, and the defendant repeatedly claimed she did not know she was pregnant.
- The ruling lands as authorities confront recurring secret-birth cases, with experts estimating 15 to 40 infant homicides annually, and fresh proceedings reported in Dresden and in Graz, Austria.