BGH judgment foster mother responsible for burns of the child

Karlsruhe (jur). A foster mother from Bavaria has to go to jail for two years and nine months for severe mistreatment of a four-year foster child and serious bodily injury. The Federal Supreme Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe has confirmed in a resolution announced on Monday, July 25, 2016, the imprisonment imposed by the Deggendorf district court (Ref .: 1 StR 205/16).

In March 2014, the defendant had two children entrusted by the Youth Welfare Office to take care of themselves. The supervision of Mario, born in June 2010, was much more difficult than that of his younger brother Kevin. Mario suffered from developmental delays and behavioral problems.

The Youth Welfare Office offered the foster mother, a then 34-year-old pediatric nurse, to take the child out of the nursing home. This refused, however. On 9 June 2014 escalated after conviction of the district court Deggendorf then the care situation.

Thereafter, the foster mother is said to have forced the boy Mario to stay seated on a heated terrace tile on the very hot day. The child suffered large-scale blisters throughout the buttocks area. But instead of going to the hospital immediately, the defendant waited another eleven days.

The doctors finally found burn injuries of the third degree. Even older burn injuries were diagnosed, but the causative agent could no longer be determined. As a result of the burns Mario had to undergo multiple surgery and has since been marked with conspicuous scars and adhesions on the entire bottom.

The foster mother denied the abuse. The child had inflicted the injuries himself.

This was not followed by the district court. The accused tortured the child through her behavior, accepting the risk of a serious illness. The scars are to be regarded as "significantly disfiguring permanently". The foster mother was therefore sentenced to two years and nine months' imprisonment for "ill-treatment of wards in coincidence with serious bodily harm.".

The height of the sentence was now confirmed by the 1st Criminal Division of the BGH in its decision of 12 July 2016, so that the judgment became final.