Strasbourg: Eight years in prison for a disabled woman after the death of her newborn

The Bas-Rhin Assize Court sentenced Géraldine Stecher, a disabled woman, to eight years in prison on Thursday, June 19, for "neglect resulting in the death" of the newborn she had just given birth to. Stecher, 44, received a harsher sentence than the prosecutor had requested, who had asked the jury for a five-year prison sentence, two of which were suspended.

After three days of trial, the court, however, reclassified the charge, dismissing murder in favor of "abandonment of a minor resulting in death," which carries a penalty of thirty years in prison. The two and a half years that Géraldine Stecher has already served will be deducted from the sentence handed down Thursday.

This woman, under reinforced guardianship, gave birth to a baby in the toilet of her apartment in Erstein (Bas-Rhin) in 2022. During the trial, the forty-year-old explained that she discovered she was pregnant at the time of the birth. "I didn't know I was pregnant. I discovered it [...] when the baby fell into the toilet," she said.

Michel M., 64, his friend, was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended, for failure to assist a person under the age of 15 in danger, a more lenient sentence than the one requested by the prosecution, which had called for a four-year suspended sentence. Present on the day of the delivery, it was Michel M. who had called the doctor. Upon arrival, she found that the baby was dead.

The court determined that both defendants had "impaired judgment," an argument that reduced their sentences. Both had chaotic life histories, as highlighted by personality tests and psychological and psychiatric interviews.

They had been placed in care since childhood: Géraldine Stecher after being raped, Michel M. because his mother had starved one of her children to death. The psychologist and psychiatrist who examined them described them as "vulnerable people," "emotionally deprived," "incapable of acting in situations" such as the one they experienced during childbirth.

A painful past that resurfaces

Géraldine Stecher had already had a child, Olivier, born in 2002 and placed in care at birth. This first pregnancy was medically monitored, with Géraldine Stecher being supervised by a medical-educational institute at the time. The second pregnancy occurred in the context of a breakup with the baby's presumed father.