In the murder verdict against the parents of a starved baby, Judge Johann Lohmann spoke of a case “that was particularly shocking on a human level.” He has just pronounced a life sentence against the two defendants who, according to the Itzehoe Regional Court, fed their daughter so inadequately last year that she died in agony at the end of September at just over four months old.
Lohmann spoke of murder by omission and cruelty. The court also found that the crime involved serious mistreatment of those under protection.
The presiding judge spent more than three hours explaining why the chamber had come to this verdict after careful and difficult consideration, and repeatedly referred to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice. “The case leaves you stunned,” he said.
What had happened?
The baby’s then 24-year-old parents called the emergency services to their apartment in Brunsbüttel (Dithmarschen district) on September 26, 2025. An emergency doctor could only determine the death of the baby, who was emaciated to the bone. It weighed less than when it was born. The autopsy revealed a combination of starvation and thirst for the girl, who was actually healthy.
It quickly became clear that the family lived in desolate conditions and that the couple’s three-year-old twins were also neglected. The two girls were placed in a foster family. A judge issued an arrest warrant against the parents. Since then they have been held in the Lübeck correctional facility.
What did the defendants say in the trial?
During the trial, the father and mother reported their difficulties in dealing with the baby. “I had the feeling all the time that I wasn’t doing justice to the children,” said the father. However, he had no memory of the month of the child’s death until the day of death.
The mother of the dead infant stated that it was unusual for her to breastfeed the newborn, as the twins were initially fed through a tube because they were born prematurely. Both parents emphasized that, in their opinion, the child had developed in an age-appropriate manner.
How does the chamber justify the judgment?
Lohmann explained that it is crucial that parents have a duty to guarantee their newborn. Both should have realized by mid-September 2025 at the latest that the child’s weight loss would result in a life-threatening situation. The mother had continued to reduce breastfeeding of the baby.
On September 16th, both attempted to feed the infant with formula from a bottle. When that didn’t work immediately, they ended the experiment without drawing any further conclusions. According to the court’s conviction, the mother further reduced breastfeeding in the following days and stopped breastfeeding completely no later than 18 hours before the child’s death.
Rescue would have been possible until the end
The presiding judge accused the defendants of having been able to save the child until shortly before death. All you had to do was call the emergency doctor. According to a forensic medical report, intensive care measures could have kept the child alive.
The decisive factor for a conviction for murder is not that the parents accepted the death of their child, as Lohmann emphasized. They would not have wanted death, but they would have been indifferent to developments. Both are psychologically stressed – she, among other things, from depression, he, among other things, from a borderline disorder. But that didn’t stop her from spending her nights playing computer games.
“She knew about the danger, but she suppressed it,” said Lohmann about her mother. The father was more interested in his needs than those of his children. The presiding judge told both of them that you don’t have to be particularly intelligent to realize that a child who is not fed enough for a long time will die. Both parents are intelligent enough.
Lohmann described the situation in the apartment as desolate. The mother looked after the baby, the father looked after the twins – both inadequately. The twins’ teeth were largely rotten. Neither of them took care of the household. It was only cleaned up before two announced visits from the youth welfare office. In both cases there were no complaints.
With the murder verdict, the chamber met the public prosecutor’s request. The defense attorney for the accused father had requested five years’ imprisonment for negligent homicide, and the defense attorney for the accused mother had requested four and a half years’ imprisonment for negligent homicide.
The verdict is not yet final. An appeal to the Federal Court of Justice is possible.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:260721-930-415719/4
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