17 years imprisonment for the father (32) and 14 years imprisonment for the mother (23) judged on Monday by the Viennese regional court following the death of a baby.
According to the Viennese regional court, a 32-year-old Viennese father shook his daughter to death on June 4 of the previous year following repeated abuse. The mother, a 23-year-old woman from Vienna, is said to have deliberately looked the other way. The couple had to answer for murder or murder by omission in court – this judged nothing on Monday to 17 years imprisonment and admission to an institution for mentally abnormal offenders for the father and 14 years imprisonment for the mother.
According to an expert, the father has a “higher degree of mental and emotional abnormality” and has been in psychiatric treatment for around 14 years – but according to the report, the man is of sound mind. In court, he stated that he loved his daughter, who was born at the end of March 2021. He admitted to having shaken the child three times, but he did not expect the child to be injured or even die. He confessed that he wanted to calm the child by shaking it – the result: several fractures on both thighs and such serious head and brain injuries that the brain might no longer be supplied with oxygen.
Youth Welfare Office did not see any acute danger
After the first time “where I did it”, she laughed, according to the 32-year-old. His daughter “never bled from her nose or ears or behaved differently followingwards.” After the last crime on June 4, the baby was flown to the hospital by helicopter, but finally succumbed to the serious injuries on June 12. The doctors turned on the police, the parents were arrested and have been in custody ever since. Explosive: the child and youth welfare department (MA 11) did not determine any acute danger to the child in advance.
The story of the couple reads tragically: The man suffers from several serious mental illnesses, said he was very addicted to alcohol and described himself as a gambling addict. The woman, who, according to her lawyer, suffers from intellectual disability, became pregnant during the relationship and, according to the public prosecutor, considered having an abortion, but it was too late for that.
The baby itself was “not wanted from the start”, due to the man’s outbursts of anger, the youth welfare office was also informed and the couple received a midwife and care from social workers and educators. Finally, there was also the possibility of the couple being evicted.