Darmstadt/Rüsselsheim (dpa/lhe) – In the process of a starved and thirsty toddler, an examination of the mother revealed several mental illnesses. The 26-year-old has complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a structural dissociation disorder and she has had a depressive episode, a psychiatric expert said before the Darmstadt Regional Court on Monday. There the confessed defendant, who comes from Portugal, has to answer for murder. According to the public prosecutor, the woman had her 13-month-old son die of thirst and starvation in Rüsselsheim in October 2021.
The PTSD is based on the sexual and physical violence experienced by the parents, explained the specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy. The accused was taken into care by the youth welfare office together with her siblings at the age of eight. Later she no longer wanted to speak to her parents and sometimes had hallucinations that her father had turned up at the children’s home armed. With a dissociation disorder, one believes one is standing next to oneself and perceiving oneself from the outside. According to the expert, this disorder, which was a protective mechanism against parental violence for the accused in her childhood, could lead to the 26-year-old getting into a state eight months ago in which she was no longer caring for her child.
The expert assumed that the defendant was temporarily reduced in her ability to control, but also had an insight into the wrong. Even in the traumatized state, she knew that she had to take care of her child. The trial will resume on June 21.
