North Rhine-Westphalia
Trial over the death of a two-year-old in a daycare center – criticism of beds
The accused childminders with their lawyers in the Gelsenkirchen district court. photo
© Oliver Berg/dpa
A two-year-old suffocated while taking a nap in his daycare center. Now the two childminders are in court. But a furniture expert also considers the beds installed in the facility to be dangerous.
The defendants in the trial are the two 38 and 27 year old childminders who worked in the daycare organized by the city.
According to the investigation, the boy had pushed up the bottom of the bed above from below during his afternoon nap, then had his head trapped and suffocated. This chipboard should have been firmly screwed in accordance with the regulations, emphasized Lahrmann. Then the accident could not have happened.
Accusation of negligent homicide
According to the investigation, the beds were purchased ten years before the fatal incident using financial resources from the city of Gelsenkirchen, reported the presiding judge Karl-Martin Lucks from the investigation files. The manufacturer of the beds and the supplier were also identified. “Of course everyone is trying to talk their way out of it now,” said Lucks.
The two childminders who ran the large daycare in the city on their own responsibility are accused. According to the indictment, they are said to have breached their duty of supervision. The children were unsupervised in the bedroom during their afternoon nap, and not even a baby monitor was installed, the prosecutor said. The prosecution therefore accuses the two childminders of negligent homicide. The two women did not comment on the allegations in court.
According to a city spokesman, the city of Gelsenkirchen took action after the incident. The loose intermediate panels on the wooden beds, which were also used in another daycare center, were subsequently fixed. According to the city, the bed came from a professional crib maker.
A verdict could be announced next Friday. The trial had already begun in April – but had to be stopped after a few hours due to an organizational error by the court.