Austria
Mother is said to have locked her child in a dog crate
Lawyer Astrid Wagner before the start of the trial in Krems, Austria. photo
© Helmut Fohringer/APA/dpa
The description of a twelve-year-old’s ordeal leaves no one indifferent in the courtroom. According to the prosecution, the mother wanted to use torture-like methods to make her son compliant.
A 33-year-old has been in Austria since Monday Mother to stand trial for attempted murder of her child. The single parent is said to have tortured her then twelve-year-old son for months by depriving him of food, tying him up, beating him and gagging him, pouring cold water over him and temporarily locking him in a small dog crate.
The extremely emaciated child begged for food, but her own mother was completely unmoved, said the public prosecutor at the start of the trial in the Krems regional court. “I just can’t believe it,” the prosecutor admitted of her own dismay.
Defense attorney Astrid Wagner described the defendant as a very simple person intellectually, completely overwhelmed by her upbringing and easily manipulated. The 40-year-old co-defendant, who helped determine the child’s suffering with her sadistic instructions, is largely to blame. Both women were close friends.
According to the prosecution, the child was only saved through the intervention of a social worker. At this point, the 1.65 meter tall son had lost weight to 40 kilograms. According to the prosecutor, he was in a life-threatening, comatose state with a body temperature of just under 27 degrees. The defendant wanted to make the child compliant with her actions. The 33-year-old explained that her relationship with her son had always been very problematic. “I thought he hated me.” According to the defendant, his aggressive behavior was not normal.
From the perspective of the co-defendant’s defense attorney, the 40-year-old made many mistakes but did not know the extent of the abuse. It was his client who finally alerted the social worker, said the lawyer. The trial is scheduled for three days.