Die Stuttgarter Nachrichten. Raus aus der Psychiatrie. Rüdiger Bäßler. 18.11.2024
On Monday, 18.11.2024, Ulm Regional Court acquitted a 16-year-old, mentally impaired girl from Ulm of charges of attempted murder and assault. The allegations centred on an attack by the teenager on her mother on 23 January of this year in the social welfare offices of the city of Ulm. The mother was strangled with a scarf. This was followed by a charge of attempted manslaughter by the public prosecutor’s office in Ulm and the arrest.
Until the start of the trial this September, the teenager, who was 15 years old when she committed the crime, had to stay in a wing for adult offenders at the Centre for Psychiatry (ZfP) in Bad Schussenried, largely shielded from visitors and her divorced parents. The clinic also expressed its displeasure. In an internal letter to the court this summer, a senior doctor strongly suggested that the patient be transferred. The inmates in Bad Schussenried included ‘paedophiles and sex offenders’, there were no special youth therapists and it was difficult to permanently shield the child from the predominantly male inmates.
Suicide attempts after the arrest
After her arrest, the then 15-year-old, who had suffered from borderline personality disorder for many years, had suicidal thoughts.She had repeatedly tried to swallow sharp objects or glass, according to the medical clinic management in the letter.The result: even greater isolation in a camera-monitored ‘crisis room’.The child’s parents protested against this treatment of their daughter during the trial. The state of Baden-Württemberg proved to be powerless: unlike Bavaria or Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, it has no youth forensics, i.e. state therapy centres for juvenile offenders who are classified as unfit to stand trial.
So now the acquittal of all charges.According to the chamber, the girl had attacked her mother in a state of incompetence, with reference to a psychiatric report obtained for the trial.
The search for therapy continues
According to Detlef Kröger, the lawyer for the girl’s family, there have been no more incidents since the release from Bad Schussenried. However, the search for a therapy centre that could help in the long term continues.