display
Mainz (dpa / lrs) - In a trial for the death of a baby, the accused father denied shaking his child on Tuesday before the Mainz district court.
This is exactly what the public prosecutor's office accuses the 30-year-old from Essenheim in Rhineland-Hesse, the charge being manslaughter.
The man is said to have shaken his three and a half year old son for seconds in a stressful situation in March 2019.
Despite intensive medical treatment, the baby died in June 2019. Doctors had found bleeding into the brain and suspected a shaking trauma.
The father reported that he was alone with his twins that morning in March and wanted to bottle feed them on a corner of the sofa with one baby on the left and one on the right.
One child choked, then the situation came to a head.
The baby convulsed, tried to breathe, and then her arms hung limply.
He spoke on the phone with the mother who gave him the tip to hold the baby lightly upside down and hit the back.
This can be heard on a telephone recording which the defendant, as he says, "probably made it inadvertently in a panic".
The man went on to say that he kept moving the baby into different positions in the hope that it would start breathing again.
However, he did not shake the child.
It is possible that he did not hold his head properly.
display
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210223-99-556747 / 2