Mother jailed for killing four infants

AN Austrian woman who stuffed the bodies of two of her four infants into a freezer and entombed two others, in plastic buckets filled with cement, was yesterday convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Gertraud Arzberger, 33, was convicted by a court in the southern city of Graz, bringing to a conclusion a macabre crime saga that stunned and gripped Austria.

Her live-in companion, 39-year-old Johannes Genser, was convicted as an accessory to the crimes and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

Arzberger, meanwhile, denied having had a fifth baby and killing it shortly after birth, despite testimony by neighbours.

Genser had proclaimed his innocence and had insisted he never noticed Arzberger was pregnant. Neighbours, however, had testified that her swollen belly was obvious.

The two were charged last June after a neighbour living found two bodies beneath the frozen meat and vegetables, in a chest freezer shared by the residents of the apartment complex in the city of Graz.

Post-mortems on the remains indicated that the two infants found in the freezer were still alive when they were put inside, wrapped in plastic bags.

Police subsequently found two more infants entombed in paint buckets filled with cement.

Before the jury returned Friday's verdicts, state prosecutro Johannes Winklhofer urged the court to hand down a stiff sentence.

"She is a murderer - she killed four babies in a brutal and gruesome fashion," Mr Winklhofer said.

Her partner, he added, "knew everything ... she could not hide her condition from .. her friend."

Neighbours described Arzberger, a bookkeeper, as a hard worker who kept a tidy house and a beautiful yard.

Genser was led from the courtroom in handcuffs after asking Judge Karl Buchgraber if he first could propose marriage to Arzberger.

"Can I still offer her my hand?" Genser asked.

"No," the judge replied.