“Mühlbachhopser” process
From Winfried Köninger
Friday, November 20, 2020 at 7:04 p.m.
Offenburg
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In the “Mühlbachhopser trial”, the Offenburg District Court pronounced the verdicts. A former day-care center manager was sentenced to a fine and a year banned from working.
In the “Mühlbachhopser trial”, the Offenburg District Court pronounced the verdicts. The main defendant, the former daycare manager, was sentenced to a fine of 120 daily rates of 40 euros each and one year of professional ban. The other two co-defendants were acquitted.
The three teachers of a parent-run daycare center in Offenburg were dismissed without notice in June 2019 after they were accused of mistreatment and deprivation of liberty of daycare children. The defendants, aged between 26 and 51 at the time of the offense, are accused of having forced or punished the children entrusted to them to eat and sleep in 26 cases.
“Unsustainable conditions in daycare”
In the hearing on Friday, the evidence was initially continued from the first day of the trial with two further hearings of daycare teachers. The result was a similar picture as before: the witnesses unanimously spoke of “some of the unsustainable conditions in the day care center”. However, some had memory gaps and also provided contradicting information compared to those at the police interrogation.
It was essentially about three incidents. The allegation of deprivation of liberty stems from the violent confinement of small children in a travel cot, which was covered with a heavy mattress for security. The children had to endure this imprisonment for up to two hours, crying. “Sometimes they fell asleep from exhaustion,” said one witness. Witnesses reported that the radio was turned on in cases where the children’s crying never stopped.
“The day care center was not a place where children could feel comfortable”
One mother testified as a co-plaintiff that her son screamed hysterically at home as soon as he saw a mattress. “The day care center was not a place where children could feel comfortable,” said the mother. Another main allegation: children who refused to eat were, partly lying on the floor, having their food spooned into their mouths. It also happened that the lower jaw was forced downwards. There is also said to have been a “penalty chair”.
In the pleading of public prosecutor Marina Diezl, this demanded imprisonment of eight months for the main defendant and seven months for the two co-defendants, each on probation, as well as monetary requirements for charitable purposes in the amount of between 2,000 and 3,500 euros. She justified this with the offense of physical abuse, the deprivation of liberty. “There was also a significant breach of trust in the parents,” said the prosecutor. The representative of the co-plaintiff Tanja Schwarz stated: “That was only the tip of an iceberg.” The defense lawyers for the three defendants saw it differently.
The sentence remained below that of the Prosecutor’s plea
“From a moral and educational point of view, the procedure was not correct, but the acts were far from deprivation of liberty and physical abuse, they were by no means callous,” said the defender of the main defendants, lawyer Dirk Bischoff, in his plea. His client is suffering from the dismissal and the psychological consequences, she shows remorse. The lawyers of the two co-defendants, Reinhart Kohlmorgen and Yorck Fratzky, pleaded similarly. All three defense attorneys demanded acquittal for their clients.
Judge Marion Pabst sentenced the main defendant to a fine for deprivation of liberty and pronounced a one-year professional ban; she was acquitted of the other allegations. You must bear the costs of the proceedings. The co-defendants were acquitted of all allegations. “The witnesses could not always give a coherent picture,” said Pope.
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