The trial against the 32-year-old, who is said to have shaken his baby to death, ended yesterday at the Criminal Court in Vienna. The jury was still deliberating on the verdict at the time of going to press. The public prosecutor accused the man of murder, he faces ten to 20 years in prison and committal to an institution for mentally abnormal lawbreakers.
The accused had already admitted at the beginning of the trial that he had shaken his daughter three times. But he did not expect the baby to die. This was only eleven weeks old at the time of the crime.
“I shouldn’t have done it,” the 32-year-old said, sobbing in court. “Not a day goes by that I don’t blame myself. Not a day goes by that I don’t want to turn back time. I loved her.” The man is said to have abused the baby, who was born in March last year, for the first time in April because it was crying. He wanted to “calm down” the child.
On June 4, he is said to have finally shaken the little girl so violently that she passed out. The mother called the rescue. The child was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he died a few days later. The 23-year-old mother is said to have noticed the crime and not intervened. She was charged with murder by omission. The woman denies this. Her ex-partner stressed in court that she was not there the first two times he abused the child. The third time she saw the “last two seconds”. However, the 23-year-old “did nothing”, she should “not have to pay.”
The 32-year-old claimed in court that he “didn’t intentionally” hurt the child. “Apart from shaking, I didn’t do anything to my daughter,” he “otherwise did everything to make her feel good.”
The mental illness of the accused, who has been undergoing psychiatric treatment since 2007, was then discussed. Among other things, he has anxiety disorders, panic attacks, an emotional personality disorder, depression. He self-harms, is addicted to gambling, has attempted suicide, and drinks. At the time of the crime he was under the influence of alcohol.
According to the psychiatric expert Siegfried Schranz, the multitude of his psychological abnormalities makes the suspect dangerous. He falls into the group of those offenders who statistically have a high probability of recidivism. At the beginning of the trial, the public prosecutor’s office had applied for the accused to be committed to an institution for mentally abnormal offenders.
According to the expert, the mother of the child is sane and there is no mental abnormality. In addition, the 23-year-old was able to show exactly how the father shook the child.
Source: Nachrichten
