On Wednesday, a German court sentenced a 30-year-old father to 13 years in prison for attempted murder after injecting mercury into his 1-year-old daughter’s foot. The court sentenced the man’s girlfriend to 12 years in jail for her involvement in the crime.
According to German news agency dpa, the father from the small town of Springe near Hannover wanted to exact revenge on the child’s mother, who had abandoned him shortly after the girl’s birth.
According to the accusation, the father and his new girlfriend knew the poison would not kill the toddler but wanted to inflict tremendous misery on him.
Following the injection, the daughter had a severe illness in her foot and a rash over her entire body. According to DPA, the mercury in her body was discovered by coincidence during a third poisoning-related surgery.
Both the father and his 34-year-old girlfriend first disputed the accusation in front of a Hannover court, but soon before the trial finished, the couple acknowledged injecting mercury into the girl’s left foot and right ankle last July, according to dpa.
It’s unclear where they got the liquid mercury.
The defendants have the right to appeal the ruling. German privacy laws prevented the revelation of the defendants’ and victim’s identities.
