Patrick Stübing
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This article appears to be written like a news report. (April 2012) |
Patrick Stübing (born 1976 in Leipzig, East Germany) is a German locksmith. He was in the centre of a heated debate around incest, due to his relationship with his biological sister, Susan Karolewski, since 2001. The relationship has so far produced four children: Eric, Sarah, Nancy, and Sofia. Sofia, the only healthy child, remains with the couple. The older two children suffer from severe physical and mental disabilities. The third child was born with a heart condition but is healthy after undergoing a heart transplant. All three were placed in foster care.
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Life history [edit]
Stübing was adopted at age 3 due to physical violence from his father and, as a child, lived in Potsdam. He did not meet his mother and biological family until he was 23. According to Stübing, the relationship between his sister and himself had been nothing but platonic, until their mother's death six months later. From then onwards, he and Karolewski continued living together and became intimately close. Karolewski has been described as mentally subnormal and was sixteen at the time of giving birth to the first child. The relationship was discovered when their first child was born and a nurse suspected Stübing was the father of his sister's child, and contacted the police. During his two-year prison sentence for committing incest, Karolewski had a short relationship with an unknown man who claimed to be her boyfriend and had another child with him, which she gave up rights to once her brother was released from prison. She claims that the other man was a brief fling and she would rather be with her own brother. Today Stübing and Karolewski share a small flat in an east German tower block on the outskirts of Leipzig, where they continue to raise their daughter Sofia and have repeatedly demanded the return of their first three children.
Legal issues [edit]
Incest is a criminal offence in Germany. Patrick Stübing has already served a two-year sentence for committing incest and there is another jail term looming if paragraph 173 of the legal code is not overturned. Karolewski was sentenced to probation because she was a minor when the sexual relationship began. Under Germany's criminal code which dates back to 1871, vaginal sex between siblings or between (grand-) parent and child is a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison. The couple's lawyer has argued that the law is "out of date" and "breaches the couple's civil rights".
In 2004, Patrick Stübing voluntarily underwent a vasectomy.
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany upheld, on March 13, 2008, a law that makes incest a criminal offense, rejecting the appeal by Stübing.
On April 12, 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Stübing's "conviction and prison sentence for an incestuous relationship" did not violate Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to respect for private and family life), as "the German authorities had a wide margin of appreciation in confronting the issue".[1][2] Stübing requested the case for referral to the Grand Chamber, but on September 24, 2012, it was rejected and judgment has become final.[3]
References [edit]
- Incestuous German pair fight case BBC News, 20 February 2007
- Couple stand by forbidden love BBC News, 7 March 2007
- Dangerous Love: German High Court Takes a Look at Incest Spiegel Online, 11 March 2008
- Siblings Who Have Four Children Together Lose Incest Appeal Discovery, 18 March 2008
Notes [edit]
- ^ Press Release 158 (2012) on the Stübing vs. Germany case. European Court of Human Rights.
- ^ Judgment on the Stübing vs. Germany case. European Court of Human Rights.
- ^ Press Release 382 (2012) European Court of Human Rights.
