Death of five-year-old: Almost nine years in prison for 20-year-old
He was supposed to look after the girl and killed the five-year-old in a park, according to the judges: nine months after the crime, the defendant was sentenced to a juvenile sentence of eight years and nine months.
The Berlin District Court found the 20-year-old guilty of manslaughter. His culpability had been proven beyond doubt, said presiding judge Uwe Nötzel. It was a particularly despicable act. "What we haven't found out is the background, the motive, the cause."
Seven stabs - "he deliberately killed the girl"
On February 21 of this year, the German defendant was at a playground near the mother's home with the four young children of a friend. When the five-year-old, the oldest of the four sisters, had to go to the toilet, he took the child to the Bürgerpark Pankow. "There he stabbed the girl with a knife," said the judge. There were seven stabs, four of them in the torso of the child, who had trusted him - "he deliberately killed the girl". She bled to death within minutes.
The hearing of evidence did not reveal any viable evidence of a sexual motive, for example. Characteristics of murder had not been established. Due to a reduction in intelligence and a personality accentuation, according to the principle "In case of doubt for the accused", it could not be ruled out that he was only guilty of diminished culpability, the presiding judge continued. On the other hand, it had not been possible to establish with certainty that he was guilty of diminished culpability, which would have been one of the prerequisites for ordering placement in a psychiatric hospital, as demanded by the public prosecutor.
Defendant was "extremely dangerous" without treatment
The then 19-year-old returned to the playground after the crime. Because the three younger children were alone, witnesses had already alerted the police. The accused had claimed at the time that the five-year-old had run away from him, a police officer said at the trial. He had experienced the young man as "emotionally cool". When a feverish search for the missing girl began, the 20-year-old joined in.
At around 5.30 p.m., a teacher and her twelve-year-old daughter discovered the lifeless child in a bush in Bürgerpark Pankow. A police officer described during the trial: "The girl was lying there as if she had been thrown down." The five-year-old died a short time later in hospital. Traces of blood on the murder knife, the jacket and the shoes as well as other evidence would have convicted the accused, the verdict continued. The court was concerned: "What might still be lurking inside him."
The judges decided to apply juvenile criminal law with a possible maximum sentence of ten years. The public prosecutor had pleaded for nine years and placement in a psychiatric hospital. The accused was "extremely dangerous" without treatment, according to the prosecutor. The judges essentially followed the defense lawyers' request.
The accused was arrested on the day of the crime after the girl, who had been reported missing, was found lifeless in a bush. He has been in custody since then. He remained silent during the trial. The verdict is not yet final.
- Despite the Berlin Regional Court determining the 20-year-old's guilt in the death of the five-year-old, the motive behind the crime remains a mystery.
- The processes surrounding the trial revealed that the defendant's reduced intelligence and personality accentuation could not definitively prove diminished culpability, leaving his sentence at eight years and nine months.
- Given the accused's extreme danger without treatment, the public prosecutor argued for placement in a psychiatric hospital, but the Berlin Regional Court ultimately decided on a juvenile sentence, considering the defense lawyers' request.
Source: www.dpa.com
