A judicial officer stands in a courtroom. © Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/Symbolbild
A young boy is said to have been abused, imprisoned and finally killed for months by his mother's new partner in Barsinghausen. The man is accused of murder, the mother of murder by omission.
After the death of a four-year-old in Barsinghausen, the public prosecutor's office in Hanover has brought charges of murder against the 33-year-old partner of the mother. The 28-year-old mother is accused of murder by omission. In addition, the couple is charged with serious mistreatment of wards and deprivation of liberty, the public prosecutor's office announced on Monday.
On January 12, 2023, the 33-year-old allegedly inflicted numerous blows to the little boy's head and body with a hard object in order to kill him. In addition, he is said to have inflicted serious sexual violence on the child. The boy died that night in the man's apartment in Barsinghausen as a result of his serious injuries.
Initially, the man with German and Polish citizenship and the Polish woman had tried to explain the injuries of the four-year-old with a fall down the stairs. The murder charge was initially reported by "Bild".
Since the woman moved from Poland to the 2022-year-old in Barsinghausen in May 33, the boy and his six-year-old sister are said to have been regularly beaten, tortured and temporarily locked in an unheated dark storage room. According to the investigation, the daughter of the 28-year-old was not as massively affected as the son by the abuse. The murder suspect couple is in custody.
The abuse had begun shortly after the woman moved with her children to Germany, because the boy had disturbed the 33-year-old in his love affair with the mother, the prosecutor's office said. The 28-year-old is said to have participated in the abuse after initial hesitation in order not to jeopardize the relationship with her new partner.
In particular, the four-year-old suffered serious injuries - including a fracture of the upper jaw - on December 28, 2022, which remained untreated. In the last weeks before his death, he is also said to have received hardly any food or drink, so that he was severely underweight. On January 12, 2023, the mother is said to have accepted the violent death of her child, at least approvingly, in order to be able to continue the relationship with the man. The Hanover Regional Court now has to decide on the opening of the main proceedings.
After the arrest of the couple, the Hanover region had announced that the four and six-year-old children had not previously been known to the Youth Welfare Office. According to the prosecutor's office at the time, the 33-year-old also has two children of his own from a previous relationship. His former partner had reported him for assault, but there was no evidence of whether he was violent towards his children in the previous relationship, it was said in January. Dpa
