Boy (5) died after falling from window in Linz: Suspended sentence for mother and stepfather

After a five-year-old boy fell fatally out of a window on March 2 in Linz, his mother and her partner were sentenced to ten months’ probation on Tuesday for gross negligent homicide. At the time of the accident, the five-year-old was alone in the apartment and locked in his room while his parents were out of the house for at least an hour.

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According to the public prosecutor, the boy was sleeping when the 36-year-old mother and 39-year-old stepfather left the apartment. There were two windows in the room – a large one with child safety locks and a small one higher up without. There was a desk under the windows, the prosecutor said. When the child woke up, he climbed onto the table – “apparently in a desperate search for his parents” – and from there onto the windowsill and fell out. Despite immediate resuscitation, the five-year-old died a short time later in hospital.

A passerby found the child lying motionless on the asphalt and called the emergency services at 4:31 p.m. According to the police report, the parents did not return until 5:19 p.m. The criminal complaint therefore assumes that the boy, who was found to have an exceptionally high need for movement in kindergarten, was unsupervised for at least an hour. The fact that he was wearing a diaper at the time of the accident, although he actually no longer needed one, also suggests to the public prosecutor that the parents had planned a longer absence. In addition, the parents should have expected that the child could climb onto the windowsill, as there was a farewell ritual in the kindergarten in which children do exactly that.

“They know they made a mistake”

The defense attorney said his clients would plead guilty to negligent homicide – the accused is accused of gross negligence – “they know they made a mistake,” “nothing is as it used to be.” The mother repeatedly burst into tears during questioning and sometimes said she could not remember exactly.

“I just misjudged it,” the stepfather admitted. When his girlfriend moved in with the child, he secured all the other windows, but he didn’t think a child could reach one of them. He and his partner didn’t want to leave the apartment for long. “We just wanted to get something from the car.” When the key fob didn’t work, they spontaneously decided to go for a walk.

The court found the parents guilty of gross negligence in the criminal complaint and sentenced them to ten months suspended sentence, with a maximum sentence of three years. In the court’s opinion, the parents should not have left the boy alone for long periods of time, given his special development, i.e. his high need for movement. However, there were numerous mitigating factors such as his clean record, his confessions and his personal involvement. The verdict is final.