It is “disappointment, anger and despair” that would have led Christiane K., a 28-year-old German woman, to commit her terrible gesture.
She was sentenced on Thursday to life imprisonment for killing five of her children aged one to eight.
The court in Wuppertal (West) recognized "aggravating circumstances" and imposed the heaviest sentence in Germany, which makes release impossible for at least 15 years.
Hurt by the new life of her ex-husband
The judge fully followed the thesis of the prosecution, according to which the accused Christiane K. would have killed her children mainly out of "disappointment, anger and despair".
Her world fell apart after her discovery of a photo of her husband - from whom she had been living apart for a year - with her new partner.
“Her life changed dramatically at that time,” said court president Jochen Kötter.
She couldn't stand it, he added and wanted to punish her husband.
Having left school early that morning, her eldest son, then 11, escaped the fate of his sisters and brothers.
The accused remained silent throughout her trial.
She had previously claimed her innocence, claiming that a masked man had broken into her apartment and allegedly killed her children.
However, no evidence to support this assertion could be found.
She kills them then tries to kill herself
Despite signs of narcissism and behavioral disorder diagnosed before the facts, she was found fully responsible for her actions, contrary to the demands of the defense, which had pleaded for internment in a psychiatric center.
According to the indictment, the drama began on September 3, 2020, in the family apartment in Solingen, near Wuppertal.
The woman drugged her children's drink during breakfast so that they would fall asleep.
She then ran a bath and prepared toys for them.
She then woke them up and took them, one after the other, to the bathroom where she suffocated or strangled them.
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After the alleged incidents, she wrapped them in a towel and laid them on their bed, where the lifeless bodies of the children, three girls one, two and three, and two boys six and eight, were found.
Their mother threw herself in front of a train at the station in the nearby city of Düsseldorf that same day, but survived the suicide attempt.
