Avenging mother jailed

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 9

Avenging mother jailed

NZPA Lubeck Marianne Bachmeier, who shot and killed a man in a court 'room where he was on trial for sexually molesting and strangling her daughter, aged seven, was found guilty of manslaughter yesterday. A Lubeck court sentenced her to six years in prison. Mrs Bachmeier went on trial in November, accused of pulling a pistol from her handbag and pumping seven bullets into the back of Klaus Grabowski.

The shooting took place on March 6, 1961, before a Luebeck court where Grabowski was on trial for abducting and killing Mrs Bachmeier’s daughter, Anna, in May, 1981. Grabowski, a balding, bearded former butcher, had a long criminal record including sex offences against young girls. In 1973 he was put on a year’s probation after trying to strangle a girl, aged six. Mrs Bachmeier’s lawyers had argued that she was under severe emotional

MARIANNE BACHMEIER stress and had not been responsible for her actions at the time. The verdict capped a four-month trial during which Mrs Bachmeier was touted, in some circles as a symbol of citizens’ frustration in coping with crime. The prosecution last week reduced the charge of murder to manslaughter and asked that Mrs Bachmeier be sentenced to eight years in prison. The State Prosecutor, Mr Klaus-Dieter Schultz, in requesting that the charge be reduced to manslaughter, acknowledged there had been extenuating circumstances.