Warning: Distressing content
A German woman has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter of four of her children.
Andrea Göppner, 45, was arrested in November after eight babies were found dead in her home in Wallenfels, Bavaria.
The bodies were found wrapped in towels and carrier bags in her attic flat, reports The Guardian.
Between 2003 and 2013, Göppner gave birth to eight children, however she was only tried for four counts of manslaughter because police could not determine whether the other four had been killed or they had died during childbirth.
A family member made the gruesome discovery after Göppner moved out of the apartment.
Prosecutors in the case had demanded a life sentence for the woman, however the judge overseeing the case, Christoph Gillot, said that he believed that Göppner had killed the babies not out of “blatant self-interest” but in order to “keep her existing family intact”.
Göppner and her husband Johann Goeppner, 55, both have two children from previous relationships as well as three more together, reports the ABC.
“When a case like this goes to trial, suddenly there are many people who know what the right thing to do is, and say a ‘horror mother’ has to be locked away for ever,” said the judge.
“But first and foremost, we have to try to understand such behaviour. That doesn’t mean justifying it, it just means trying to comprehend it.”
The woman’s estranged husband was acquitted on charges of being an accessory to the crime for failing to stop them.
