Accused mother denies responsibility for infant’s death: “I did not shake my son”

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A 24-year-old woman from Leipzig is alleged to have shaken her seven-month-old son so violently that he died the following day as a result of severe brain damage. On Friday, the woman, who is charged with manslaughter, denied the serious allegations against her at Leipzig Regional Court: ‘I have no explanation as to how the infant came to die,’ the mother said through tears. The court expressed doubts about her account.

Why did little Mika*, aged just seven months, have to die? Since the start of this week, the Leipzig Regional Court has been seeking to answer this question: the child’s mother, Linda W.* (24) is alleged to have shaken the infant violently on 29 April 2024 in her flat in Grünau. The boy was resuscitated by the emergency doctor who was called to the scene, but died the following day in the children’s hospital as a result of severe brain damage. According to the prosecution, Linda W., who is charged with manslaughter, caused the bleeding and injuries that led to the baby’s death by shaking him.

Defendant: “I still haven’t come to terms with his death”

The woman, who has no school-leaving qualifications and is unemployed, issued a statement on Friday through her defence lawyer, Henrike Wittner, in which she denied the allegations: “I did not shake him at any point, because I know how dangerous that is,” Linda W. asserted in her statement. As a “premature baby” with a developmental disorder, who had been born in September 2023 at just 24 weeks’ gestation, she had taken great care of Mika: “Because he was born prematurely, I’ve always been particularly concerned about him.”

On that Monday, 29 April 2024, Linda W. said she took her three-year-old daughter to nursery, carrying Mika in his baby carrier. On returning home, she fed the baby and laid him on the sofa. At some point, she says she noticed that something was wrong with the boy: “His face turned a bit blue and he wasn’t breathing.” In a panic, Linda W. dialled the emergency services, was put on hold, and ran with the child in her arms to a neighbour living below her, who helped immediately.

But in the end, it was too late to help Mika; his brain damage was irreversible: “I still haven’t come to terms with his death. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with my grief,” says Linda W., whose daughter is now five and who became a mother to another child in early 2026.

Older injuries also found on the infant

She had long since separated from the father of the late Mika and is no longer in contact with him. He is said to have been at work at the time of the incident. The authorities do not know where he is now: according to court records, a notice has been issued to trace the whereabouts of the 25-year-old, but so far without success. However, his statement to the police differed from Linda W.’s account. He claimed that it was he who had taken his girlfriend’s daughter to nursery on his own.

In addition, the forensic pathologist found, alongside the brain damage sustained by Mika, older swellings and haematomas that required an explanation: “To put it mildly, your story does not quite tally with the medical findings,” the presiding judge, Johann Jagenlauf, told the defendant on Friday. She continued to insist that she had no explanation.

Nor had she herself ever witnessed the child’s father, who was missing, being violent towards his son, even though her relationship with the man had been characterised by arguments and she had been afraid of him. She had therefore sometimes sought refuge with her mother, who had told her that the father was occasionally gruff and impatient with his baby.

First responder: “He was very pale and his eyes were fixed”

The neighbour, who provided first aid to little Mika, was summoned to give evidence on Friday. On the morning of 29 April 2024, Linda W., holding the infant in her arms, rang her doorbell and, in a panic, asked for help because he had stopped breathing, the 61-year-old recalled on Friday. She said she could not forget the sight of the boy: “He was completely pale and his eyes were fixed.”

The women alerted the ambulance service and the police, who were the first to arrive. The neighbour, who had previously worked in a nursery, also attempted to save little Mika’s life by performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In the end, however, all their efforts were in vain.

Further hearings have been scheduled until 9 September for the manslaughter trial, in which a medical and a psychological report are still awaited.

*Names have been changed.