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Is suspected of murder: Defendant in the Potsdam Regional Court
Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa
The murder trial against a 52-year-old woman who is said to have killed two residents of a Potsdam home for people with disabilities has begun before the Potsdam district court.
The public prosecutor's office accuses the nurse of malice.
On the evening of April 28, the defendant waited until two other nurses were employed in other parts of the Oberlinhaus ward, said the prosecutor when reading out the indictment.
Then the woman snuck into two rooms and first tried to strangle two residents.
Four dead, one injured
When this turned out to be too strenuous, the defendant took her bag with personal belongings from a lounge, said the prosecutor.
She told a colleague that she wanted to leave the station for a moment.
Instead, she sneaked into the residents' rooms and took a knife with a blade length of eleven centimeters from the bag that she had brought with her.
She killed the men and women between the ages of 31 and 56 with cuts in the neck.
A 43-year-old resident survived seriously injured.
"She was aware that the five victims were severely disabled people who were unable to defend themselves or call for help," said the prosecutor.
The defendant took advantage of this defenselessness.
The prosecution nevertheless assumes that the caregiver committed the acts in a state of reduced culpability.
In court, the 52-year-old spoke about her mental health problems.
She has suffered from illnesses and severe fears from early childhood, she said.
"I didn't have any friends in kindergarten - because I felt different," she said.
She also did not feel loved by her mother.
"But I couldn't help myself"
After attempting suicide at the age of 14, she came to the Charité for eight months and was treated there with drugs from Switzerland as part of a model experiment. "That was my trauma," she said. In 1990 she started working as a carer in a facility in Potsdam for severely disabled children and young people after a discontinued training as a nurse. "I have worked with children and young people with disabilities - but I could not help myself," said the defendant. In 1993 the house was taken over by the diaconal institution Oberlinhaus, where she was employed until the deed.
From the age of 20 to 38, she did not take any medication, but rather drank alcohol to alleviate her psychological problems.
After a collapse at the age of 38, she was again treated therapeutically and medically, according to the defendant.
Ten days of negotiations are scheduled for the process until December 9th.
In total, more than 40 witnesses are to be heard.
bbr / dpa