A mother who killed her newborns and stuffed them into a deep freezer for 10 and 14 years has been jailed in Germany. Steffi Schmidt, 46, was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years behind bars for the crimes. At least one of the babies was still alive when it was put into the deep freezer.
She told the court in Halle: ‘What I did is serious. I have to be punished for it.’ Judges heard how she blamed ‘overwork’ for the wilful murder of her two babies. She kept the bodies because she could not bear the thought of being separated from them. Police raided her home in the small village of Benndorf in January after her new partner raised the alarm.
The court heard that the defendant disguised her pregnancy from the world in 2004, giving birth to a healthy girl in her bathtub. She immediately put it into a plastic bag and then into the deep freezer. An autopsy showed that the baby was still alive and expired from hypothermia. Four years later she gave birth to a baby boy who she also killed at birth. The prosecution had requested a 10-year sentence for the woman, who also has two older children, while the defence had asked for six years.Photo Credit: Getty
