Schwerin, Germany  - The parents of a five-year-old German girl who starved to death in her cot last year were convicted of murder Wednesday and each jailed for 11 years and 9 months.

The death of little Lea-Sophie in the northern city of Schwerin last November prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel to appeal to Germans to check up on how their neighbours were treating their children.

The mother, 24, and father, 26, were accused of murder by omission and of abusing a person in care. Both admitted mistreating the girl.

The court heard that Lea-Sophie was unloved and already undernourished when the couple had a male baby in September 2007. She became angry, threw her toys on the ground and refused to eat, but the parents neither took action nor sought outside help.

"I never meant it to get that bad," said the mother in a final speech to the court. At the start of the trial, her partner told the court through his lawyer, "I failed as a father."

The father called an ambulance when Lea-Sophie was near death, and she was taken to hospital, but doctors could not save her. She weighed only 7 kilograms, less than half as much as most others her age, and was covered with bed-sores and dried excrement.

Psychologists told the court both parents had disturbed personalities but they were not insane. (dpa)