Public prosecutor demands life sentence for Bern mother
Published: Wednesday, Jun 5th 2024, 15:40
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The woman who allegedly killed her eight-year-old daughter in a forest near Bern in February 2022 must be sentenced to life imprisonment. This is what the public prosecutor's office demanded in its plea before the court of first instance in Bern on Wednesday.
The defendant denies the crime. There is no direct evidence in this case, but there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence, the public prosecutor stated. Based on the overall picture of the evidence, there is no doubt that the mother was the perpetrator.
The stone found at the crime scene matched the injuries to the child's head. Blood and hair of the child were found on the stone and DNA traces of the mother were also found in a secondary component, the public prosecutor's office explained.
This is also based on a witness, a 12-year-old boy at the time, who claims to have seen mother and daughter on their way into the forest at the time of the crime. The public prosecutor's office considers his statements to be consistent and credible.
The girl's body was found at a kind of hiding place in the forest, which the girl had built from branches with her mother a few days earlier. According to the public prosecutor's office, this hiding place, which was not on the path, was known only to the two of them.
The defendant stated that she had been at home at the time of the crime and had been listening to music. The woman had used her cell phone until shortly after 4:30 p.m., but had not used it for about an hour after that. This was precisely the time when the witness saw the mother and the girl on their way to the forest.
The public prosecutor's office spoke of a veritable "elimination murder". The mother had wanted to get rid of the child for extremely selfish reasons. The culpability was extremely serious. No mitigating circumstances were apparent.
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