Murder trial of Fabian: defendant Gina H. entangles herself in contradictions
In the Rostock trial over the death of eight-year-old Fabian from Güstrow, Judge Holger Schütt questions defendant Gina H. about her private life. Her statements raise new questions about her credibility.
Defendant Gina H. casts others in a poor light
For an hour and a half, Judge Holger Schütt at the Rostock Regional Court questioned defendant Gina H. about the web of relationships surrounding the death of eight-year-old Fabian – down to intimate details of her private life with her then-partner Matthias R. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports, the judge avoided the word sex, but pointed out that Matthias R. had complained in voice messages about a lack of intimacy.
Gina H. explained that she had developed sleep disorders due to numerous disputes in the relationship, which is why both had slept in separate bedrooms for eighteen months. When asked by the judge, she admitted that there had nevertheless been occasional intimacy: "Sometimes once a month. Sometimes also two, three months not at all." She then added: "Or Matthias felt like it, and I had to oblige."
Allegation: murder out of jealousy towards the child
Since late April, the thirty-year-old has had to answer before the Rostock Regional Court for the alleged murder of Fabian. According to the indictment, she is said to have lured the boy from his mother's flat in Güstrow on 10 October last year, killed him with six knife stabs approximately 13 kilometres away at a pond, and subsequently set the body on fire. The prosecution assumes that the child had stood in the way of her relationship with Fabian's father Matthias R., her ex-partner. Gina H. denies the allegations.
The questioning on Thursday was her third major appearance in the proceedings. At the end of August, after months of silence, she read out a 95-page statement – bent over the printed text, never raising her gaze, one hand clenching a silver ball, her foot in constant rocking. She concluded with the words: "Fabian never did anything to me, and I could never have done anything to him. If I had murdered him, I would certainly have felt as though I had killed my own child."
Video recording shows a different Gina H.
Only a few days after the statement was read, the court played the video interview from 14 October 2025 – recorded four days after Fabian's disappearance, after Gina H. had, according to her own account, discovered the boy's body whilst out for a walk with a friend. She was then taken to the police station and questioned as a witness from the child's immediate surroundings. Two cameras recorded the conversation.
For more than three hours, the parties involved in the proceedings and spectators could observe a woman who seemed to have little in common with the defendant on the dock. Outwardly: the woman before the video cameras wore her hair blonde-streaked and long past her shoulders, whilst Gina H. in the courtroom displays a brown fringe with small clips. In demeanour: instead of the timid reader, the screen showed a self-assured witness who seemed almost to be enjoying her appearance.
Self-presentation and side swipes
Gina H. described her life as a single parent to the officers in detail, and her relationship with Fabian's father. She mentioned a difficult childhood, a rape in 2014, and subsequent mental illnesses – borderline personality disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder – which had led to her abandoning her apprenticeship as a car body painter. She reported regular disputes with Matthias R., physical altercations on his part, and two suicide attempts after their separation in summer 2025, roughly two months before Fabian's death.
In almost all of her accounts, she was at the centre. "I had a high status for Fabian, I was more important to him than his dad," she said. Or: "I fight for what I love." And: "The problem is, I cannot lie." At this remark, audible huffing could be heard in the gallery.
On the side, she cast others in a poor light: Fabian's father Matthias R., she attested with an ironic tone to having "a minimal alcohol problem", his parents she described as hoarders. About Fabian himself, she said he had "certainly fibbed" to her and had attracted attention in kindergarten through aggressive behaviour.
Complaints about mobile phone, concern for the horses
Again and again, Gina H. complained to the officers conducting the interview that she had had to hand over her mobile telephone to forensic examination. The evening care of her horses seemed more urgent to her than her contribution to clarifying the crime against Fabian.
She described the course of the walk during which the body was discovered with many details: her friend's dog had broken loose, both had followed the animals some distance by car. A "white tail tip" had protruded from a hollow at the pond; she, Gina H., had only descended into this hollow because her friend's dog had not responded to her call. In this way and only for this reason had they discovered Fabian.
Break in the interview video
Shortly after this account, a striking break follows in the interview video: one of the officers leaves the room – the section that the court played at this point ends at this point. What follows thereafter and what weight the chamber attaches to these recordings remain the subject of the ongoing proceedings.
When witnesses have described Gina H. in the trial as selfish and manipulative, the video appearance before the police officers provides an impression of what might be meant by this. The question of what is to be believed from her statements arises again after this third encounter with the defendant, and with greater emphasis than before.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung