More than a year after the killing of a newborn in Wurzen, the 33-year-old mother has been convicted of murder. The Leipzig district court sentenced the Hungarian to life imprisonment on Wednesday. The boy, who was later given the name Janos, was “extremely violent,” said presiding judge Hans Weiß. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The boy’s body was discovered on November 10, 2021 in a freezer at the accommodation for workers in Wurzen – wrapped in a plastic bag. According to forensic medicine, blunt force injuries and eleven stab and cut injuries to the neck were found on the body. Ultimately, the newborn died of an air embolism. Judge Weiß spoke of a martyrdom that Janos must have suffered in his short life. “There were ten trial cuts before his throat was cut.”
With the verdict, the criminal court was well above the demand of the public prosecutor. She had applied for a prison sentence of twelve years for manslaughter. The defense had pleaded for an acquittal because there were reasonable doubts about the perpetrators of the accused. She announced that she would like to examine a revision. In her last word, as in the entire process, the 33-year-old had protested her innocence: “I didn’t do that,” she said. At the verdict and the approximately one and a half hour justification, she broke down sobbing again and again.
For the Trial Chamber, the low motives criterion for murder was met. The defendant gave birth to the baby alone and unnoticed in the accommodation’s toilet and killed it because she considered him a disruptive factor. “He didn’t appear in her life plans,” said Weiss.
The woman had only come to Germany to work a few months before the crime. In Hungary she admitted six minor children. Five of them are currently being cared for by their paternal grandmother and one was put up for adoption in the hospital immediately after birth.
A witness testified in court who discovered the body. The 45-year-old said he looked in a fridge that was actually parked in the communal accommodation for workers at a fish factory because it suddenly worked again. He had been connected to the Leipzig Regional Court via video from Hungary.
The 45-year-old explained that there was a bag in the freezer that he initially suspected was meat for goulash. When he took a closer look, he discovered the baby’s body and informed his superior.
During the hearing, the defendant denied killing the baby. After the birth in the toilet of a shared accommodation, someone snatched the baby from her, the 33-year-old testified. After that, she didn’t see the child again. She said she hadn’t noticed anything about the pregnancy beforehand. The criminal court did not believe this description.
The partner of the 33-year-old and the boy’s father, who had lived with the accused in the accommodation, was also in custody for months.
