German mother jailed for killing 8 newborns
Afp, Frankfurt
A German court jailed a woman for 15 years yesterday for killing eight of her newborn babies in the worst case of infanticide in the country's criminal history. The court in Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border convicted Sabine Hilschenz, a 40-year-old woman who has borne a total of 13 children, of eight counts of manslaughter. The case has sparked soul-searching across Germany about a breakdown of social values in depressed areas of the former communist east. Prosecutors, who demanded a life sentence for Hilschenz on murder charges, believe she killed a ninth baby in 1988 but the case expired under the statute of limitations. The defence team for Hilschenz, an unemployed dental hygienist, argued that she was mentally disturbed and should serve three and a half years for manslaughter.
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