If it is up to the Public Prosecution Service, 34-year-old host parent Anne W. from Helmond will go to prison for manslaughter for ten years. She is said to have abused the almost 8-month-old baby Anna so badly that she died. “The suspect appears ruthless to us,” the public prosecutor said on Tuesday during the second day of the session.
It all happened four years ago on August 20, 2019. Childminder Anne W. babysat twins of almost 8 months and their 2-year-old sister that day. The suspect claimed that she had found the baby motionless after a nap, after which she immediately started resuscitation. A day later, Anna died in hospital.
In the first instance, W. was a witness in the case, until an investigation showed that the baby had probably died due to excessive force. The childminder herself still denies that she had anything to do with Anna’s death.
“She shifts the accusation to the parents. We find that reprehensible.”
It is precisely this that the Public Prosecution Service blames her for. “She has not taken responsibility for what she has done,” the prosecutor said on Tuesday. “To this day she denies being involved in the fatal injury. But the file shows the opposite. Instead of giving the parents clarity, she very selfishly chooses for herself.”
The defense of Anne W. accuses the police of tunnel vision. She blames the Public Prosecution Service for not conducting any further investigation into the baby’s parents. The public prosecutor: “In doing so, she shifts the accusation to the parents. We find that reprehensible and it only further reinforces the suffering of the relatives.”
The officer therefore demands ten years in prison, but also a lifelong professional ban. In anticipation of the case, the Helmondse had to close her shelter.
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