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Woman arrested for sharing corpse photos on WhatsApp

"Disparaging the memory of the dead" is apparently a crime in Germany.

 

Chase Hoffberger

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Posted on Apr 10, 2014   Updated on May 31, 2021, 12:15 pm CDT

A home caretaker in Bavaria, Germany faces time in prison after it was discovered that she’d spent the past year taking pictures of dead patients and sharing them alongside sarcastic comments via the mobile messaging service WhatsApp.

She’s being held for “disparaging the memory of the dead,” a crime that could land her two years in prison and a fine. 

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the unnamed woman had spent the past year sharing photos of her dead patients with two women she’d worked with in Nuremberg. The pictures came alongside tasteless comments. In one case, the woman’s note read “Probably too much morphine.”

The gag ended abruptly after an acquaintance of the three notified their bosses. The woman who’d been charing the photos resigned, but she didn’t gig ever employers any notice, and she got taken to labour court. Those same employers also decided to take her to criminal court, where she’s currently facing charges. 

“Such behavior is unacceptable to my client and will not be tolerable,” the care home lawyer’s told  Süddeutsche Zeitung. 

Photo by Panu Horsmalahti/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Apr 10, 2014, 2:48 pm CDT