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District court Munich (symbol picture): Senior woman was in poor condition
Photo: Fotostand / Fritsch / imago images
The district court of Munich has sentenced a 67-year-old pensioner and his 56-year-old wife to suspended sentences for deprivation of liberty because the now 92-year-old mother of the man "without medical need and without the necessary judicial approval" in the closed ward of a home in January 2019 had housed in the Czech Republic.
Doctors had recommended home care for the demented woman after a hospital stay.
Defendant moved into woman's apartment
A good six months after she was brought to the Czech Republic, a professional carer and a guardian ad litem, who had been appointed by the court, released the woman. It was in a "badly soiled and unkempt condition," according to a statement from the court on Friday about the judgment, which was issued at the end of July. The elderly woman had massive sores on her tailbone and three "tennis ball-sized hematomas on her back," her hair was greasy, her underwear was dirty and sticky.
A police officer reported that the victim had stated that no one had visited her for the entire month.
Nevertheless, she tried to protect her son.
"At the time, she resigned herself that no one came to visit her, but of course she would have liked it." According to the court, the elderly woman told witnesses that she was waiting for her son to come back from vacation and pick her up.
Nobody spoke German
According to the court, the defendants had at least accepted that the injured party would be deprived of her liberty by the unnecessary and unauthorized placement. The couple, in turn, had meanwhile moved into the woman's apartment. According to the curator advisor, when asked about the mother's whereabouts, the defendants stated that she was in a super great home and would not return to Germany.
After the curator advisor had doubts about this, the court changed the custodian.
Together with the newly appointed professional carer, the curator ad litem drove to the home without further ado.
"We found the woman (...) in a dark triple room," she reported.
The elderly woman was "in poor condition."
She was very afraid of her two roommates and immediately burst into tears.
In the closed home in the Czech Republic, the guardian ad litem was not able to communicate with anyone in German.
Was overwhelmed with the care
According to the presiding judge, both defendants admitted the act "in full". They were obviously overwhelmed with the care of their dementia-sick mother and mother-in-law. "They accepted the deprivation of liberty of the injured party approvingly, but did not intend," she justified the now final judgment, the sentence of which is one and a half years on probation. The judge accused the couple of having brought the woman to the Czech Republic "under false pretenses". They told her that she only had to live there temporarily while they were on vacation.
When the guardian ad litem finally freed the woman, the elderly woman's relief was enormous, according to the court.
"She never let go of us and couldn't believe her luck at the moment." She now lives in an open nursing home in Munich.
“When I saw her again, she was much better and had become a completely different person.
She was happy again and a well-groomed woman. "
File number: Js 118454/20
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