A 28-year-old mother in Germany was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for the murder of five of her six children at her home in the western city of Solingen, the German news agency dpa reported.
Evil mother sentenced to life in prison for murdering five of her six children
The Wuppertal regional court stated the particular gravity of the crime in its verdict. In most cases, such a finding rules out release from prison after 15 years, the amount of time often served by people sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany.
The children, Melina, Leonie, Sophie, Timo and Luca, were killed in September 2020. Prosecutors said their mother first sedated the youngsters and then drowned or smothered them, dpa reported. The children ranged in age from 1 to 8 years old.
Prosecutors believe a photo sent by the woman’s ex-partner showing him with a new partner prompted the murders. The mother had written to the ex-partner that she would never see her children again, dpa reported.
Her eldest son, who was 11 at the time, survived because he was away from home at the time.
The woman sent her sixth child, to stay with his grandmother before the murders. She then tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train at the Düsseldorf train station and suffered serious, but not life-threatening injuries.
Court-appointed psychiatric and psychological experts found no evidence that she had a serious mental disorder at the time.
The court heard that she claimed a stranger broke into her home, handcuffed her and forced her to write the chat messages to her husband before killing her children.
