Germany: Woman imprisoned for killing 2 newborn babies

BERLIN – A German court has convicted a woman of manslaughter for killing two of her newborn babies, whose bodies she kept in the freezer.

News agency dpa reports that the state court in Halle sentenced the 46-year-old defendant on Thursday to nine-and-a-half years in prison. She had admitted secretly giving birth to a girl in 2004 and a boy in 2008 and killing them.

The bodies were put in plastic bags in the freezer, where police found them earlier this year. Autopsies found that the babies had been suffocated.

The woman's lawyers said she had faced pressure from her then-partner, who didn't want more children beyond the two they had. The former partner, who is accused of knowing about at least one of the frozen bodies, is also under investigation.