Mother back in court on charges of attempted murder of child

A year after a mother was convicted of attempting to murder her little daughter, the Hamburg Regional Court has to deal with the case again. The 37-year-old accused is said to have secretly and without medical necessity given the child sleeping pills and tranquilizers twice during a stay in the clinic in December 2020. The second dose of medication is said to have had a potentially life-threatening dose. The accused will not comment on the allegations, her defense attorney said on Wednesday.

In September last year, the regional court sentenced the German to four years and ten months in prison for dangerous bodily harm and attempted murder. However, the Federal Court of Justice partially overturned the judgment. The reasoning of the regional court for the assumption of an intention to kill was insufficient, said the federal judges. Now another criminal division at the regional court has to negotiate whether the mother actually accepted the death of her four-year-old daughter. The penalty must also be re-determined.

According to the verdict of the first instance, the defendant had taken her child to a hospital because it allegedly suffered a contusion of the skull when it fell off the sofa. The father had gone to work shortly before the incident. The doctors admitted the mother and daughter to the hospital. At first the child only complained of a headache, but towards evening his condition suddenly deteriorated. Because of the suspicion of a cerebral hemorrhage, it was transferred to the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf as an emergency. This suspicion was not confirmed there. The child recovered.

A nurse saw the girl drawing and playing in the room the following day. Just over half an hour later, the mother carried the apparently lifeless child out of the hospital room. A pediatrician spoke to the mother and immediately recognized the emergency. The Institute for Forensic Medicine found the sleeping pill zopiclone, which is not approved for children, and the sedatives midazolam and diazepam in urine and blood samples. Given the high dosage, the four-year-old was potentially life-threatening. The court found in September 2021 that the accused had accepted a fatal outcome.

The Federal Court of Justice complained that the district court in the first trial did not take into account circumstances that speak against an intention to kill. The accused had no criminal record and had lovingly taken care of her three children until the crimes on December 28 and 29, 2020, in particular her daughter, who was severely disabled due to a premature birth.

The district court could not clarify the motive for the act in the first instance. A psychiatric expert had found no pathological personality disorder such as the so-called Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

The 37-year-old has been in custody since February last year. A few weeks ago, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court rejected a complaint. A court spokesman said that the court, also taking into account the appeal decision of the Federal Court of Justice, affirmed an urgent suspicion of attempted murder. For the new trial, the criminal court has scheduled ten more hearing dates until the end of November.