Mönchengladbach (dpa) – Eleven months after the alleged murder of little Greta in a day care center in Viersen, the verdict is expected this Friday. The 25-year-old educator of the little girl is accused at the Mönchengladbach regional court. She is said to have suffocated the child, but protested her innocence to the end.
The public prosecutor has applied for life imprisonment for the young woman, as well as the determination of the particular gravity of her guilt and the imposition of a professional ban as a teacher.
The 25-year-old is said to have compressed the chest of the two-year-old child during the afternoon nap so that it could no longer breathe. The girl died in the hospital two weeks later – one day after her third birthday.
“We just exist, we are no longer alive,” Greta’s mother said during the trial. Greta went to daycare for the first time in weeks because of the corona pandemic and was very happy. She was very healthy.
The head of the Viersen daycare center reported that the defendant was very reluctant and did not fit into the team. She found her behavior strange and decided to quit her. At her previous jobs, too, her superiors described her as unemotional and unsuitable.
The German is also accused of mistreating those wards in eight other cases. In other daycare centers, she is said to have squeezed children’s chests together, putting their lives at risk. The defense lawyers still demanded an acquittal. There is no evidence of the crime, the cause of death has not been clearly established, they said.
A psychiatric expert had classified the educator as fully culpable. The prosecutor suspects that the woman put the children in danger in order to distinguish herself as a savior. She had raised the alarm herself whenever the children were short of breath or were not breathing at all.
The previous suspected cases in facilities in Krefeld, Kempen and Tönisvorst had only gradually come to light. The defendant is said to have always been alone with the children when the incidents occurred.
She has a big heart for children and suffers from the cruel accusations, said the teacher with tears in her last word: “I have never harmed either her or any other child and I reject all accusations.”
The woman was already noticed in 2019 for pretending to be a criminal offense in her hometown of Geldern. A doctor stated that she urgently needed psychological help.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210304-99-691413 / 3
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