A German mother went on trial on Tuesday accused of killing three of her babies by force or neglect and hiding their remains, a court spokesperson said.

Public prosecutors say the 29-year-old defendant, identified by the court only as Susan F., deprived the infants of the necessary care and nourishment between 2002 and 2005, possibly leading to their deaths.

The advanced state of decomposition of the corpses kept investigators from determining the exact cause of death.

Susan F. has been charged with manslaughter and could face up to 15 years in prison — the maximum under German law.

The bodies of the three little girls were found in late 2007 in plastic bags, in three different apartments in the eastern town of Plauen: one in a flowerpot on a balcony, another in a suitcase at the defendant's grandmother's home and a third in a freezer in a flat where the accused had once lived.

Dying a natural death?

"Susan F. has denied having killed the children and told police they died a natural death," court spokesperson Altfrid Luthe told AFP.

Suspicion first arose when she failed to bring her daughter Celine, born in 2002, for a pre-school medical examination.

The defendant, a trained foreign language secretary, did not address the court in the city of Zwickau on the first day of a trial during which some 40 witnesses are to testify, Luthe said.

Susan F. also has two sons born in 2000 and 2006. All five children are believed to have been fathered by the same man, with whom she had a 10-year relationship.

He has told investigators that Susan F. told him that she had given Celine up for adoption and that he had not noticed the two other pregnancies because he often travelled for work.

Authorities have accused the local social services of failing to help the unstable young mother, who moved house nine times in just a few years and gave birth twice at home alone.

Germans have been horrified by a series of cases in recent years of mothers who killed their children.

A verdict is expected 21 October.

AFP