Stepfather is jailed for 15 years over death of girl

A COURT in Paris has jailed a man kidnapped from his home in Germany to 15 years behind bars for killing his own stepdaughter.

Dieter Krombach, 76, was found guilty of “intentional violence causing the unintentional death” of his French stepdaughter 29 years ago in a sitting of the court on Saturday.

After Germany refused to extradite him to France, he was kidnapped by men hired by the girl’s real father, Frenchman Andre Bamberski, and dumped in chains outside a police station.

Germany was horrified by the kidnapping and wanted France to extradite Mr Bamberski to face justice but it refused. He will however now have to face French judges for his crime.

Krombach’s lawyer, Yves Levano, said he would appeal the verdict.

“We are disappointed, that’s certain,” he said. “But the Dieter Krombach case continues. We will immediately lodge an appeal.”

Fourteen-year-old Kalinka was found dead in her bed at Krombach’s home on Lake Constance, Germany, in 1982.

Medical reports found that she died after choking on her own vomit and her body also bore marks of injections.

Mr Bamberski fought hard for a trial in Germany but investigating authorities found no case to answer in 1987. Germany later refused to extradite Krombach when he was convicted in absentia at a trial in France in 1995.

In 1997 the doctor was convicted of drugging and raping a 16-year-old patient – a case with no direct bearing on the French trial, but one that increased the suspicions of Kalinka’s father.

Mr Bamberski told reporters that now that “justice has been served in her memory, I will be able to mourn with her.”