A mother who crushed her newborn daughter to death and then tossed her body in a rubbish bin has been jailed for nine years.

Accused Karolina P., 24, was found guilty of manslaughter after judges heard how she had put the infant’s body in a plastic bag after she pushed it repeatedly against the edge of a bath.

Then – the Moenchengladbach District Court, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, heard – dumped the baby in a rubbish bin after giving birth in March this year.

Police officers later named the tragic tot Rabea.

A woman whose identity was not disclosed by media later found the infant’s body and immediately reported it to the police on Monday, 28th March.

An autopsy later revealed that the baby was not stillborn and that it died as a result of a violent assault.

Investigations showed that Karoline P. repeatedly crushed the baby against the edge of the bathtub immediately after she gave birth to her, before the little one passed away.

Follow-up DNA tests later led police officers to the 24-year-old shoe saleswoman who was arrested in June, while her trial began in November.

Rabea was buried in the presence of 50 locals at the Municipal Cemetery in the city of Moenchengladbach on 7th April.

One of them named Marianne Coenen said: “I was shocked. I still am, because I could not understand how can a person do that to a small child.”

At the first trial hearing Karoline P. reportedly attempted to defend her case by claiming that she had not noticed the pregnancy.

She added that one day, when she was taking a shower, the baby’s head suddenly began to appear between her legs.

Karolina P. said through tears: “It started screaming. I wanted to calm it down so my friend wouldn’t wake up.

“Then I banged her head against the edge of the bathtub. I don’t know what happened there, I have a blackout.

“It will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

She reportedly told the judges she could not remember putting the bag with the baby in the trash, or cleaning the bathroom after the gruesome incident, but later confessed to murdering the child.

The woman who found the infant in the bin testified in court the same day and said: “I hope that you can be helped. I haven’t found any help yet.”

In the final trial hearing Karoline P. was sentenced to nine years in prison and a successive placement in a psychiatric ward as she was diagnosed with a severe borderline personality disorder.

She will reportedly be placed in the facility until she no longer poses a danger to the general public.

Judges claimed that she murdered the infant because of self-loathing in order to punish herself.

There is no information whether the public prosecutor who demanded a life imprisonment, will appeal the verdict.