A German court on Thursday ordered a woman who killed her five sons held indefinitely at a psychiatric facility.
The state court in Kiel ruled that Steffi Kitzmuller, 32, posed a danger to society. A court-appointed expert said she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
Kitzmuller has been in a psychiatric facility since December, when the bodies of her boys, aged 3 to 9, were found at their family home in the northern village of Darry.
During court proceedings to determine whether Kitzmuller should stay in psychiatric care, she admitted having suffocated her sons with bags _ which she resorted to after failing to kill them with sleeping pills.
In a written statement to the court, she said she had sent her husband, the father of the three youngest boys, to stay with friends in Berlin.
The court determined the killings should be classified as manslaughter.
Judge Joerg Brommann said the defendant believed she and her children were threatened by evil powers and was unable to see that her actions were wrong. He said killing the children was "consistent and necessary" from her point of view.
In court Thursday, she listened to the verdict without showing any reaction.
