Processes
Death of abused child – district court ruling overturned
The defendant (M) in the Ellwangen regional court (2022): The trial surrounding the death of a small child must be reopened. photo
© Stefan Puchner/dpa
The case made national headlines: a man abused a small child for months and he died in the hospital. He is convicted. But the court has to deal with the case again.
The defendant’s appeal was rejected by the Federal Court of Justice in a judgment published on Friday in Karlsruhe.
The German was sentenced by the regional court on May 18, 2022 to a prison sentence of 14 years for manslaughter and severe mistreatment of those under his protection. The court considered it proven that the 33-year-old from the Bavarian district of Ansbach, who was 33 when he was convicted, had abused his partner’s small child for months. On October 21, 2021, the 23-month-old child was taken to the hospital with numerous injuries, where he died of serious internal injuries.
The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a murder conviction and life imprisonment. However, the court did not take the murder characteristics as given. From the BGH’s point of view, the denial of low motives for murder based on the reasons given by the regional court does not stand up to factual and legal scrutiny. The highest German criminal judges missed an overall assessment that also included previous mistreatment.