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Higher Regional Court of Hamm
Photo: DPA
After the starvation of a two-year-old boy in the Sauerland, the Hamm Higher Regional Court confirmed the sentence for the responsible employee of the youth welfare office in the last instance.
For months, the employee had failed to get a personal impression of the boy's condition, although there were warnings from another youth welfare office, it said in a statement from the court.
So the starvation of the boy was "contrary to duty hidden" from her.
"If there are warning signs, youth welfare workers must act and investigate the facts," said a court spokesman.
According to the court, the employee had only visited the family once within several months and had not requested to meet the boy personally.
During this period the child's condition apparently deteriorated dramatically.
3500 euros fine
The decision (Ref .: III-5 RVs 83/20) confirms a decision by the Arnsberg Regional Court from the beginning of 2020.
The employee of the youth welfare office in the Hochsauerlandkreis has to pay 3500 euros.
The mother of the starved boy was sentenced to three years and six months in prison by the Arnsberg regional court in June 2018.
This judgment has been final since February 2019.
The little boy's case had caused great consternation.
He was the eighth of nine children of the single mother who died of severe malnutrition at the end of February 2014.
According to court documents, the two-year-old boy only weighed around 6.5 kilograms at that time - the normal weight at that age is around 12 kilograms, according to the court.
His younger sister, at the time still an infant, could only be saved through intensive medical treatment.
She also suffered from severe malnutrition.
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lmd / dpa