Overview
- The Hamburg district court found the 39-year-old guilty of negligent homicide by omission and imposed a 10-month prison term on probation, ordering her to pay trial costs.
- The ruling is not yet legally final.
- Judges concluded the child was underwater for at least three minutes after the instructor focused on a crying child; resuscitation attempts by the instructor and a doctor parent failed, and the girl died the next day from oxygen deprivation.
- The presiding judge cited multiple breaches of duty, and prosecutors argued the death could have been averted with timely headcounts or by sending the other children out of the water.
- The defense blamed the pool operator for leaving the instructor alone despite her prior email warning the group was hard to manage, as the father and defendant delivered emotional statements in court.