Dutch mother sentenced to 12 years for killing four newborn babies

[News_Editor]

Dutch mother sentenced to 12 years for killing four newborn babies

2011-05-04 01:32:47 GMT+7 (ICT)

NIJ BEETS, NETHERLANDS (BNO NEWS) – A Dutch woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday for killing her four newborn babies between 2003 and 2009, prosecutors said.

Sietske H., 26, was arrested in August 2010 after the bodies of four newborn babies were found in the attic of her home in Nij Beets, a village of nearly 1,700 people in the Dutch province of Friesland.

The investigation had begun several months earlier after someone came forward to police and reported that the woman may have had several pregnancies in the past. "The question was what happened to those children," Annette Bronsvoort, a local prosecutor, said in August.

Bronsvoort said police decided to continue their investigation at a 'right time' after more details became clear, but did not say when. The woman was interrogated several times and gave various statements about what had happened to her children, including a story in which she said she gave the children away for adoption.

"She was asked to prove this which she couldn't," Bronsvoort said. "Eventually a moment came where she said; 'those babies are not alive anymore [and] they are probably in the attic.'"

Bronsvoort said that was reason to immediately conduct a search of her house, where she lived with her parents who were not aware of their daughter's pregnancies. Numerous goods were seized, including suitcases which revealed the bodies of four babies.

"The woman is the mother of these children and she held the pregnancies as secret as possible for everyone," the court in Leeuwarden said in a statement. "The court sees in statements made by the woman enough evidence that all four children were alive when they were born."

According to the court, H. killed her children out of fear because she felt a need to be 'the perfect daughter' for her parents. Therefore, the first death has been classified as child manslaughter and the subsequent deaths as child murders.

"This involves gruesome facts in which a completely defenseless baby was killed by their own mother with a pillow, but sometimes also with bare hands," the court said. "It is a mystery why the suspect - after killing her first child - allowed to become pregnant three more times."

The court noted that contraceptives are easily available and, even when it leads to a pregnancy, H. could have considered options such as an abortion or adoption. "Outstanding is the suspect repeatedly had unprotected sex with the father of the children," the court said, adding that the four babies all had the same father.

The woman has refused to participate in a psychological investigation to avoid being sentenced to involuntary psychiatric treatment called TBS, forcing the court to assume H. was fully accountable for her actions when she committed the murders.

"For these reasons, and because the court thinks these facts are so serious and shocking, the court gives the maximum punishment possible which is twelve years in prison," the statement said.

Just days before the arrest of H. in August, a 19-year-old woman from Breda, a city near Tilburg in the southern Netherlands, was arrested after the remains of a baby were found inside a suitcase in her home's attic. The remains had been there for approximately 10 months.

And in December 2008, a 23-year-old woman was arrested after a dead baby was found in the Dutch city of Enschede. She later told police the location of a bag that contained the remains of a second baby.

And in January 2006, Etta A. from Beverwijk near Amsterdam was arrested after she had killed her four newborns by drowning them. She was later sentenced to three years in jail and involuntary psychiatric treatment.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-05-04

[gregb]

About the only thing I will say to this is that in addition to a prison sentence, this woman needs to be sterilized. Allowing her to contribute anything to the future gene pool would be a crime against humanity...

How can anyone kill their own baby? And 4 times? How sick is this woman..

[geriatrickid]

About the only thing I will say to this is that in addition to a prison sentence, this woman needs to be sterilized. Allowing her to contribute anything to the future gene pool would be a crime against humanity...

How can anyone kill their own baby? And 4 times? How sick is this woman..

Very sick.

However, the option of sterilization is not on the table since it was a misused approach to the western world's mentally ill right up until the 1970's.

[joe84330]

tragic story. i sincerely hope the two dutch gentlemen who have attempted to enlist the local police against the US for the killing of bin laden will march right over the her town and demand action.