When the fire brigade was called to Oosscheuern, in a northeastern district of Baden-Baden, five days before Christmas Eve last year, everything initially pointed to a normal house fire.
Then firefighters and police found a charred and mutilated body of a six-year-old girl in the apartment.
The investigators quickly realized that it had to be a terrible violent crime and that the fire had apparently only been set to cover up the facts: A 34-year-old road builder, grew up in the home, occasionally watched porn, apparently had no pedophilic tendencies, allegedly loved children the six-year-old girl was killed with a knife, the dead woman was sexually abused and the corpse was severely mutilated in the genital area.
Ruediger Soldt
Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.
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Prosecutors filed charges of murder, disturbing the peace of the dead, attempted murder in four counts in conjunction with "attempting to cause an explosive device explosion" resulting in death.
Four other people had suffered injuries and smoke poisoning as a result of the fire, and the German, who had no criminal record, also paid no attention to his own son.
"We were stunned"
The Baden-Baden district court passed the verdict on Tuesday: The court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment for murder and disturbing the peace of the dead, arson, dangerous bodily harm and property damage;
it also determined the particular gravity of the guilt.
An early release from prison is therefore almost impossible.
The court followed the demands of the public prosecutor's office and the joint plaintiffs.
“We cannot clarify the exact motives.
The perpetrator gave no information.
We were stunned," said the presiding judge at the verdict on Tuesday.
The convict must pay the parents of the killed girl a survivor's benefit and his son compensation and compensation for pain and suffering.
The amount of the payments is determined in a civil proceeding.
How exactly this act could have happened, which psychopathy led to the murder, remained unclear even during the main hearing.
The defendant remained silent and was also not ready for a psychiatric exploration.
Shortly after the indictment was read out, he merely announced that he would remain silent during the trial.
The man had a difficult childhood as an orphan, but then led an unremarkable life.
The killing came from a chance acquaintance on the playground: the six-year-old girl had made friends with the son of the later perpetrator on a playground.
Because the girl had already slept twice in the man's house with other friends, the mother had no qualms about placing her daughter in the man's care again.
According to the autopsy report, the girl died from a cut on her neck and choked on her own blood.
The perpetrator's son suffered smoke poisoning from the fire, his father fled injured after the murder to a neighbor's garden and tried to kill himself there.