In the trial against a woman who is said to have thrown her little daughters off a balcony in Saarland, the accused spoke at the beginning.
She said on Wednesday before the Saarbrücken district court that the act, which she can no longer remember, was a knee-jerk reaction.
She can no longer understand this today, reported the mathematician, who had worked as a management consultant in Frankfurt.
According to her own statements, she suffered from a “mixture of depression and psychosis”.
The public prosecutor assumes that the 39-year-old committed the crime because of a mental illness in the state of incapacity.
The security procedure in Saarbrücken is about her accommodation in a special psychiatric facility.
The woman's three-year-old daughter died at the end of July 2022 from a traumatic brain injury when she fell from a height of about five meters.
Her one-year-old sister and mother, who jumped herself, survived.
The family lived in the Main-Taunus district in Hesse and was visiting the grandparents in Saarland.
The girl's partner and father as well as other relatives were in the apartment during the crime.
The woman reported in court on Wednesday that she had felt bullied by fellow patients in a psychiatric day clinic and had spontaneous thoughts of suicide.
She didn't want to leave her children alone.
In retrospect, she considers it a big mistake that she didn't listen to the advice of doctors from the day clinic and took the appropriate medication, because "this terrible act" might have been prevented.
"I'm incredibly sorry for how much suffering and grief I've caused," said the 39-year-old, who was previously hospitalized because of her mental illness.
Two further hearing dates are scheduled in the process.
At the next appointment on January 26, the father of the children and the parents of the accused are to be heard.