German mother on trial for killing five of her children

Berlin: A 28-year-old woman went on trial in Germany on Monday accused of smothering five of her six children in the bath, in what prosecutors called a particularly "malicious" case.

The accused, identified only as Christiane K., faces a life sentence if found guilty of the murders by the district court of Wuppertal in western Germany. The bodies of her three daughters aged one, two and three, and two sons aged six and eight were discovered in the family flat in the city of Solingen on September 3, 2020.

They were found lying on their beds, each wrapped in a towel. Prosecutors believe the mother mixed medication into the children’s breakfast drinks to make them sleepy, before drowning or smothering them in the bath.