A young woman found guilty of killing her four babies as soon as they were born has had her jail sentence slashed from 12 to three years by the Leeuwarden appeal court.

Once she has completed her time in jail, Sietske H will be sent to a secure psychiatric clinic (tbs) for further treatment. The public prosecution department had called for a four-year jail term followed by tbs.
Last year, the young woman was sentenced to 12 years in jail without psychiatric treatment because she had refused to cooperate with an evaluation of her mental state. She has since undergone psychiatric tests and been declared not fully responsible for her actions, hence the reduced sentence.
Secret pregnancy
The young woman gave birth to four children secretly at home in the village of Nij Beets in Friesland between June 2003 and June 2009. She told the court she gave birth in her bedroom at the parental home, having kept the pregnancy secret by wearing loose clothes.
H, a dental assistant by profession, told the court last year she remembered killing the last two babies, but very little about the first ones.
‘I did not want anyone to know I was pregnant. It was fear, shame and panic. It was not how things should be,’ she told the court during last year’s hearings.