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The parents came to the trial in black again, they put up a framed photo of their beloved daughter in the courtroom.

The 21-year-old died on January 29, 2018 near Berlin's Alexanderplatz when a police car crashed into her small car.

She had no chance.

Almost three years after the fatal crash, the Berlin-Tiergarten district court found a police chief inspector guilty of negligent homicide on Tuesday.

He was given a 14-month suspended sentence.

This leaves the officer at large.

The parents who followed the trial as co-plaintiffs sat rigidly.

They had called for a tougher sentence - four years in prison.

For them, the investigation was a judicial scandal - inadequate and flawed.

The father fought back tears and said, disappointed, "We were hoping that he would at least get prison."

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The parents are still convinced that the officer was driving while drunk.

But precisely this allegation was not admitted to the trial.

The public prosecutor had initially accused of endangering road traffic through drink-driving.

However, this had to be dropped after a court order, because the confiscated patient file of the police officer could not be used as evidence.

The seizure was unlawful.

The officer at the wheel of the patrol car was on the way to an operation with flashing lights, a signal and excessive speed when he rammed the car of the young woman who was about to park.

According to the public prosecutor's office, the police officer was traveling at 130 kilometers per hour after exiting the tunnel.

During the collision, a speed of 93 kilometers per hour was determined.

The 21-year-old victim died at the scene of the accident

Source: pa / Maurizio Gambarini / dpa

Under no circumstances should the policeman have driven so fast during the day in the city of Berlin, judged judge Sascha Daue.

"That is not how it works.

This is absolutely negligent, a gross breach of duty of care.

An operation order does not justify everything. ”The behavior of the police officer was causal for the fatal accident.

He should have taken off the gas at the tunnel exit.

Suspicion of a cover-up was in the room

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The case had caused quite a stir - there was suspicion in the room that something was being covered up.

The police did not take a alcohol test immediately after the accident, and the officer and his passenger were quickly taken to the hospital.

The authorities denied the allegations.

Police chief Barbara Slowik recommended that all officers, in the event of serious accidents, voluntarily take a breath alcohol test “to prevent any suspicion”.

The police investigations were not optimal, but rather chaotic, the verdict said.

The court did not find that anything should be covered up.

With the sentence, the court met the demands of the public prosecutor's office exactly.

It was expected that the judgment will go to the next instance.

Should it become legally binding, the police officer would lose his official status.

The gaunt accused always sat in silence in the courtroom, and received the verdict almost without moving.

At one point he was absent from the trial without an apology and later stated that he had taken too much medication.

There are said to have been death threats against him on the Internet.

The officer received police protection during the trial.

The chief inspector refused multiple requests from investigators to release his patient file.

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The defense attorney, who requested an acquittal, said his client had been a policeman with heart and soul for 32 years.

The accident also changed his life radically.

"He's a psychological wreck." At the beginning of the trial, the police officer had his lawyer explain that the "tragic, terrible accident" is still very close to him today.

He is "very, very sorry".

A witness had described the scene of the accident as a large field of rubble during the trial.

And one witness remembered the police car: "I thought, oh my god, the car is about to take off."