A 56-year-old woman was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday for attempted murder and aggravated arson by the Hanau Regional Court. The jury chamber saw it as proven that the former riding instructor set fire to a historic estate near Gelnhausen (Main-Kinzig district), where she had been renting for more than ten years, at night last August, and "approvingly accepted" the deaths of other residents. The neighbors were able to escape in time because a woman had been awakened by the barking of her dog.

According to the court, the "lovingly restored" 17th-century estate, a former forester's lodge, was completely destroyed in the fire. The damage is estimated at around 2.6 million euros. The public prosecutor's office had demanded a prison sentence of nine years and ten months, and the defense had proposed that the defendants be placed in a psychiatric hospital.

In his verdict, the presiding judge Mirko Schulte called the defendant an "incorrigible do-gooder" whose mental suffering had not been adequately treated. Instead, the woman sought help in alcohol. On the night of the crime, she had limited control.

Again and again, the woman had failed because of the world and her own contradictions. In her neglected and littered apartment, she had drawn a line under the arson in a severe depressive phase and possibly wanted to take her own life in Switzerland.