At the trial of three children drowned in a pond in Neukirchen in the Schwalm-Eder district (Northern Hesse), there was now a surprising verdict.
- Three children drowned in a fire pond in Neukirchen in northern Hesse in 2016 .
- Neukirchen Mayor Klemens Olbrich is on trial.
- The defender demands acquittal .
- Verdict against the mayor.
Update, February 20, 2020, 3:53 p.m .: Surprise in the trial against Neukirchen Mayor Klemens Olbrich for the three children drowned in the pond in Neukirchen Seigertshausen. The district court sentenced the head of administration for negligent killing in three cases by omission to a fine of 12,000 euros, payable in 100 daily rates.
The sentence was suspended on probation for two years. The verdict is not yet final. Olbrich's defense attorney Karl-Christian Schelzke said that he would recommend his client to appeal.
Neukirchen pond accident: plea for drowning children between acquittal and fine
The Neukirchen town hall chief Klemens Olbrich (CDU) is charged with negligent homicide . The sentence ranges from a fine to up to five years in prison . The verdict is due to be delivered on Thursday at 2 p.m.
In the process of the death of three children drowned in a village pond, the pleadings were made before the district court in Schwalmstadt in northern Hesse. The demands in the final lectures ranged from acquittal to a fine of 9,000 euros. The public prosecutor considered a fine of 90 daily rates of 100 euros each to be appropriate.
According to the public prosecutor , Olbrich should have secured the pond, which was almost two meters deep, in which two boys (5 and 9) and one girl (8) drowned in June 2016. Only one of the children could swim. The family lost three of their six children at the time.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: counterparts strengthen Mayor Olbrich's back
Update, 01/24/2020, 06:34 a.m .:
Also on the second day of trial against Neukirchen Mayor Klemens Olbrich due to negligent killing, the large hall in the district court of Treysa is fully occupied. The interest of national media is limited this time, but six counterparts from the
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis
and numerous Neukirchener the back of the accused.
Olbrich, who is supported by his wife and son, is clearly affected by the negotiation. The 62-year-old, who has been mayor of Neukirchen for almost 30 years, is accused of having drowned three five, eight and nine year old siblings in the village pond of the Seigertshausen district on June 18, 2016 . Chief Prosecutor Kerstin Brinkmeier found that the pond was used as a fire extinguishing pond, that the mayor had to take care of his fencing and that he had violated the traffic safety obligation.
The children were drowned beyond any doubt , the autopsies at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Gießen did not reveal any evidence of violence or other causes, said its director, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Dettmeyer, yesterday as an expert. All children showed the classic drowning signs.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: This is probably how the tragedy happened
This assessment was also supported by the Homberg detective , who led the investigation in the Schwalm-Eder district in June 2016 . The 57-year-old head of the K10 department at the Kripo described the most likely scenario: According to this, the five-year-old boy fished on the water with a children's landing net with an orange handle. Maybe he fell into the pond or tried to grab the slipped net. His two older siblings then tried to get the little one out of the water and fell into it themselves.
However, the older children found no support on the slope, which was wet, smooth and steep from the rain, fell back into the water and finally went under. "This is the only plausible explanation for the tragic accident," said the detective.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: pond as a trap - the children "just couldn't get out of there"
"You just can't get out of there," said the policeman. This was also the experience of the two men who had recovered the five-year-old boy from the water. The helper could only leave the pond with the boy in his arms after a ladder had been pushed as a step aid .
The officials assume that the accident occurred near the small jetty that leads into the water. At this point, the witness said, the pond was the deepest at around two meters. On the opposite bank below the grill hut, it is much flatter and only gradually falls off. There is no significant current in the pond.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: next day of negotiations in February
The trial will continue on Thursday, February 6, with other witnesses, including mayors and magistrates. District judge Mareika Pöllmann thinks it is possible that a plea can then be made.
Update, January 9, 2020, 2:15 p.m .: It is still almost dark when Klemens Olbrich enters the district court in the Schwalm-Eder district on Thursday morning. Three and a half years after the tragedy in Seigertshausen, he is accused as the mayor of the city of Neukirchen of negligent killing of the three children.
Until the doors to the large negotiating room for the film and photo reporters close an hour later at around 9.10 a.m. and the first day of the negotiation begins a little later, the 62-year-old has to manage an interview marathon . With his prominent defense attorney Karl-Christian Schelzke, Managing Director of the Hessian Association of Cities and Municipalities, by the side, he answers the same questions.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Mayor can not understand the accusation of guilt
Yes, the tension is great, yes, all this burdens him, he can never erase the tragic death of the children from memory. No, he could not understand the accusation of guilt , he had never been able to imagine facing such an accusation. As the cameras click and whir, viewers take their places. Olbrich's wife is there, also some companions from Neukirchen and a number of mayor colleagues .
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Trial against mayor could have a nationwide signal effect
One thing is clear to everyone: the course of the process sends out a nationwide signal - do heads of administration bear personal responsibility for such tragic events? With all the serenity that Olbrich and Schelzke flaunt, the enormous tension is palpable.
Schelzke underlines that an end to the trial will not be accepted - he had clearly called for acquittal in advance. Schwalm-Eder-Kreis: While three law enforcement officers are taking care that the numerous journalists and reporter teams do not park their vehicles in the parking ban, the police arrive.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: media interest is huge, that the public manageable
A detective is on site as a process observer. The interest of the public remains manageable, about a dozen non-official listeners are finally in the relatively small negotiating room when the five-day process begins punctually at 9.15 a.m.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Mayor - "I will never forget what's going on"
The prosecutor Kerstin Brinkmeier heads the charge. As announced, Mayor Olbrich from the Schwalm-Eder district takes a detailed position , expresses his sadness and dismay and confesses how much this tragedy burdens him, "I will never forget what is happening". Then he describes the course of the day of the accident from his perspective until he is informed that Saturday around 10 p.m. and called to the scene of the accident.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Mayor Olbrich describes the day of the accident from his perspective
Then he reports what he has to watch there, the salvage of the children's corpses . Anyone who is on site, including the district administrator. Then his own career, his tenure as head of administration since 1990. And that Seigertshäuser Teich has been around for probably 200 years. No one had ever pointed out the necessary safety measures to him, in contrast to classic fire-fighting ponds such as in the districts of Hauptschwenda, Asterode or Wincherode.
However, the water in Seigertshausen is a recreational pond , where social games and events have been taking place for decades. Nevertheless, as a triple father, he naturally feels deep sympathy for the parents of the children who have died.
Update, 09.01.2020, 12.30 p.m .: The trial against the Mayor of Neukirchen (Schwalm-Eder-Kreis), Klemens Olbrich, started in front of the Treysa district court on Thursday morning.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Public prosecutor accuses mayor of negligent killing
The public prosecutor accused him of negligent killing after three children, siblings aged five, eight and nine, drowned in the village pond of the Seigertshausen district in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis on June 18, 2016. Chief Prosecutor Kerstin Brinkmeier accuses the 62-year-old, who has been mayor of the city of Neukirchen for almost 30 years, for neglecting his road safety obligations.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Public Prosecutor - fire-fighting pond should have been secured with a fence
Pond in Neukirchen-Seigertshausen: Our picture was taken the day after the tragedy.
© Katja Rudolph
The fire-fighting pond in the village in the Schwalm-Eder district should have been surrounded by a 1.25 meter high fence as a recognizable source of danger . Olbrich had known about the danger from the pond that it was predictable, said Brinkmeier in her indictment. Olbrich and his defense lawyer, Karl-Christian Schelzke, denied that the body of water was a fire-fighting pond.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: The pond serves as a leisure facility in the Schwalm-Eder district
The pond, which is over 200 years old, now serves primarily as a leisure facility and recreational facility and only in the event of fire as a fire water reservoir . However, fencing is not required for such ponds, of which there are numerous others in the Schwalm-Eder district alone.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Mayor is deeply affected
A demand to protect this pond in Neukirchen-Seigertshausen accordingly has never been made, neither by the city committees nor by the population in the Schwalm-Eder district. Nevertheless, in a very personal statement, the mayor was concerned and saddened by the death of the children. "I will never forget this day," he said when asked by Judge Pöllmann.
Three siblings drowned: pond process begins in Schwalmstadt
To the photo gallery
Pond accident in Neukirchen: How far does the responsibility of mayors go?
Olbrich knew the family personally, congratulated the mother herself on the birth of one of her six children and welcomed the family to Neukirchen in the Schwalm-Eder district. The case is being followed by three other mayors from the county, because it could be fundamental to how far a manager's personal responsibility for security in his community goes.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Defense demands acquittal
Defense lawyer Karl-Christian Schelzke, former chief prosecutor and now managing director of the Hessian Association of Cities and Municipalities, is therefore also striving for a clear acquittal for his client. In the course of the morning, the parents of the children testified as witnesses, which caused emotional moments in the hearing. The hearing in the Schwalm-Eder district will continue at around 12 noon with the hearing of other witnesses.
First report, January 8, 2020, 5:21 pm: With great media interest, the trial against Neukirchen's mayor Klemens Olbrich begins on Thursday. Neukirchen is located in Schwalm-Eder-Kries in northern Hesse. The trial before the Treysa district court is scheduled to take five days, so it will take until March 5.
Siblings drown in the pond in the Schwalm-Eder district
It is about the accident in June 2016, when three siblings drowned in the pond in Seigertshausen, as reported by the HNA *. City council chief Olbrich (62) is accused of negligent homicide . The allegation is that he did not provide fencing of the water as a possible source of danger .
Klemens Olbrich, Mayor of Neukirchen.
© Anne Quehl
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis: Mayor Olbrich continues to follow the pictures today
The German press agency quotes Olbrich as follows: “That is a burden to me. The pictures will not get out of my head for the rest of my life. ”In the evening, he immediately rushed to the scene of the accident in Neukirchen-Seigertshausen and saw the consequences: three child corpses laid out in a garage. Forces had brought the lifeless bodies there first. The victims were the five, eight and nine year old children of a family from the Schwalm-Eder district living nearby.
The eleven-year-old brother had been looking for his playing siblings in the evening and wanted to bring them home. When he saw the accident, he alerted neighbors and the emergency services. According to the investigators, the five-year-old boy and his eight-year-old sister were unable to swim.
The nine-year-old was able to swim, but he still died in the cloudy, 40 meter wide and one to two meter deep pond . The family lost three of their six children at the time.
Video: Tragedy in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis - Three siblings drowned in a pond
Neukirchen im Schwalm-Eder-Kreis and the pond accident - responsibility for the question of guilt is now being worked on
The day after, the parents did not appear publicly at the scene of the accident in Neukirchen-Seigertshausen. Later they also held back in the media. Olbrich, after not wanting to say anything for a long time, willingly commented on the case and his view of things. For the first day of the trial in the Schwalm-Eder district, his lawyer has promised extensive client involvement.
After a long legal hack hack over jurisdiction, the question of guilt is now being dealt with at the district court in Treysa. Defense lawyer Karl-Christian Schelzke describes his expectation in one word: "acquittal." * No one had previously seen a potential source of danger in the pond .
Pond accident in Neukirchen - is there a culprit?
“There are destinies for which there is no guilty party . In our fully comprehensive mentality, we Germans assume that you can always find a culprit , ”says defense lawyer Karl-Christian Schelzke about the tragedy . in Neukirchen-Seigertshausen.
What is important for the process is what type of pond it is. Klemens Olbrich, himself a lawyer and longest-serving mayor in the Schwalm-Eder district, speaks of a "fish pond" or "leisure pond" that does not require a fence.
Pond accident in Neukirchen: bathing pond or water retention pond?
Schelzke calls the body of water a bathing pond, while for the public prosecutor it represents a "fire water retention pond" * for which security obligations would have existed. There are regulations for such water reservoirs for the fire brigade. They contain the provision that they must be surrounded by a 1.25 meter high fence.
Since such an accident could have happened in many places, lawyer Schelzke sees a nationwide significance of the case, which goes beyond Neukirchen and the Schwalm-Eder district. "Many mayors are looking forward to the procedure and are wondering whether they should better fence in or secure something."
Pond accident in Neukirchen: was the pond a danger?
According to the Criminal Code, the penalty for negligent homicide * is a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine . Schelzke, former chief prosecutor in Frankfurt, formerly mayor in Mühlheim am Main and currently managing director of the Hessian Association of Cities and Towns, also points out that the mayor from the Schwalm-Eder district could not have made the decision to fence the pond alone ,
“This would have required a decision by the magistrate. Because the pond has been there for ages, it is unlikely that the magistrate would have agreed. ”Especially since there was never any indication that the pond in Neukirchen-Seigertshausen was a danger . "Nobody ever pointed this out," says Schelzke.
Video: Drama about three drowned children in a pond in the Schwalm-Eder district
Pond accident in Neukirchen: Process start - Numerous journalists arrive
Observers assume that numerous journalists will follow the process in Neukirchen in the Schwalm-Eder district from Thursday. Information has gone out to all major TV channels and agencies.
The start is this Thursday at 9.15 a.m., it continues every 14 days on Thursdays until March 5 - for five process days. Despite a written request, we were not informed yesterday whether there would be space for spectators who were not specifically admitted.
By Anne Quehl
The lawsuit against Neukirchen's mayor Klemens Olbrich is not the only one that heats the mind. In Göttingen, a police officer sued a 76-year-old woman for the payment of a compensation for pain and suffering of 1,500 euros *.
* hna.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
