As of: February 26, 2024, 2:17 p.m
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Lawyer Astrid Wagner before the start of the trial in Krems, Austria.
© Helmut Fohringer/APA/dpa
A twelve-year-old's story of suffering leaves no one unmoved in the courtroom.
According to the prosecution, the mother wanted to use torture-like methods to make her son submissive - and also filmed the whole thing.
Krems - The defendant answers haltingly, in a quiet voice, tears running down her face, then the judge orders a five-minute break.
A case is being heard at the Krems regional court in Lower Austria that is bothering many in the courtroom.
The 33-year-old defendant 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 charge is: attempted murder.
The extremely emaciated child had begged for food, but her own mother was completely unmoved, said the public prosecutor at the start of the trial on Monday and added with concern: "I just can't believe it."
The co-defendant is said to have given instructions
In her opening statement, defense attorney Astrid Wagner described the defendant as a very simple person intellectually, completely overwhelmed by her upbringing and easily manipulated.
She is not the “horror mother” as the media has already dubbed her.
According to Wagner, the 40-year-old co-defendant, who helped determine the child's suffering with her sadistic instructions, is largely to blame.
With the second defendant, a “bad person” came into the life of her client, who had previously been completely inconspicuous.
What is undisputed is that both women were close friends.
During the Corona period they lived together for a time and later exchanged ideas almost every day.
The topic of conversation was often the parenting problems that the main defendant had with her son.
The 40-year-old, for her part, has four children aged two to 18.
Child suffers severe abuse
The jury was shown photos of the defendant's son, who had apparently been abused: with bruises, bumps and scratches, and had become drastically emaciated within months.
According to the prosecution, the child was doused with cold water, then the windows were thrown open and he had to endure shivering with wet clothes and hair in just a few degrees.
In order to make the child docile, his mother first banished him to a dog's nest because of bedwetting and later locked him in a small dog box for hours.
“He kept threatening that he would jump from the window if I went out,” says the defendant.
The 33-year-old explained that her relationship with her son had always been very problematic.
“I thought he hated me.” His aggressive behavior was not normal, said the defendant.
She wanted “him to follow me and do what I tell him.” The goal, according to the defendant, was to be a well-behaved child in school and private life.
The punishment with the dog box - measuring 57x83x63cm - was discussed with the 40-year-old friend, says the defendant.
The co-defendant also follows her trial unmoved and cries several times.
From the perspective of the 40-year-old's defense attorney, she made many mistakes but knew nothing of the extent of the abuse.
It was his client who finally alerted the social worker, said the lawyer.
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Twelve-year-old in mortal danger after rescue
According to the prosecution, the child was only saved through this intervention by the 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.
“At this temperature, any adult would have been dead long ago.
(...) It was a last-second rescue,” said the judge.
In this situation, on November 22, 2022, the defendant made several videos of her completely weak child, who was barely able to articulate himself.
The 12-year-old was treated in intensive care and recovered physically.
“The consequences will stay with him psychologically for years to come,” said the victim’s lawyer.
The 33-year-old faces a life sentence and the co-defendant faces a sentence of up to ten years.
In addition, the Krems public prosecutor's office requested that both of them be placed in a forensic therapeutic center.
The trial is scheduled for three days.
dpa