Woman accused of killing 9 babies goes on trial
German mother accused of slaying newborns over span of a decade
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 FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany - A German mother accused of killing nine newborn babies over the course of a decade and burying them in flower pots went on trial on Thursday in a case that has shocked the nation. Lawyers for the 40-year old woman, identified as Sabine H. from the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, said at the start of the trial that their client would not take the stand to defend herself. The unemployed dental assistant is charged with eight counts of manslaughter as the statute of limitations on the first of the nine deaths has expired. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Police in the eastern state of Brandenburg discovered the bones of nine newborns buried in flower pots, buckets and a fish tank after a neighbor of the woman's parents stumbled upon the remains of some of the babies while clearing out their garage last July. The woman has told investigators that she was alone when she gave birth to the babies and in most of the cases under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. She admits to having left the first two to die, but denies intentionally killing them and says she cannot remember the circumstances of the last seven deaths because she was in a drunken stupor. "I did not kill them deliberately. I just left them alone and didn't take care of them," she said of the first two babies in a pre-trial deposition that was read out in court by chief judge Matthias Fuchs. Described as country's worst postwar killings
The deaths of the babies, which occurred between 1988 and 1998, has been described as postwar Germany's worst series of child killings and sparked shock that the crime went undetected for so long. The woman has said that her former husband, who fathered the seven girls and two boys that died, spent long periods away from home because of their marital problems and was not aware of her pregnancies. The couple had three children that are now grown before the deaths took place and the woman has one two-year old child by another man. A day after her arrest last year, Sabine H. spoke of a "vicious circle" that began with her fourth pregnancy in 1988. Her husband had been against having more children, she said, and she had kept the pregnancy secret from him, eventually giving birth over the toilet where the baby allegedly drowned. The woman said she then began drinking heavily to banish the vision of her "blue faced" baby from her mind. She did not consider getting abortions over the years because of fears that a doctor would discover her prior births. In preliminary proceedings, she described putting the dead babies in plastic bags and then burying them in flower pots, some of which she kept on her balcony to be near her children. Prosecutors had initially wanted Sabine H. to face murder charges but the court ordered the charges reduced to manslaughter because the crimes occurred against a backdrop of alcohol abuse and family problems. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
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