Man sentenced to life term for killing Ukrainian girl in Germany

A 37-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Valeriia, a nine-year-old girl from Ukraine, who was killed in early June 2024 in a forest west of Dresden, the court in Chemnitz announced on Friday, reported dpa.

The verdict against the defendant, a Moldovan citizen, was handed down on the fourth day of the trial. The man is the ex-partner of the victim's mother.

The girl's disappearance, and the investigation into her death after the discovery of her body, drew extensive media coverage and attention in Germany.

The court also ruled that the conviction carries a particularly serious level of guilt, a legal determination that makes it extremely unlikely that the man would receive early release after 15 years, as is generally common.

The Ukrainian woman, who is divorced from the girl's father, had fled to Germany with her children before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. They found a new home in the eastern German town of Döbeln, where she began a brief relationship with the now 37-year-old killer.

On June 3 last year, Valeriia disappeared on her way to school. For days, hundreds of police officers searched for the child with the help of divers, drones and dogs.

Just over a week later, they found the body in a forest around four kilometres from the apartment.

A forensic pathologist found sludge everywhere in the girl's airways, right down to her windpipe and bronchial tubes, and testified in court that she had suffocated.

Representatives for Valeriia's mother and father, who took part in the proceedings as joint plaintiffs alongside prosecutors, had called for life imprisonment.

The man's defence attorney had pleaded for a manslaughter conviction.