The three-day trial against the mother who locked her boy in a dog box in the Waldviertel and tortured her began on Monday. Even the public prosecutor fought back tears in the LG Krems. “I just wanted him to follow me,” the 33-year-old mother tries to explain the torture of her then twelve-year-old son. She now faces life imprisonment.
The crowds in front of the jury courtroom in Krems (Lower Austria) are huge on Monday morning: one and a half years after the atrocities committed by a woman from the Waldviertel against her own child became known, the 33-year-old mother now had to answer in court for attempted murder as well as torture and neglect. Sitting next to the woman also her once best friend in front of the jury. She is said to have given the instructions for the horrific acts. Eerie silence in the courtroom When the door opens around 9 a.m. and the two women enter the courtroom, there is an eerie silence. “The horror mother and her sadistic friend,” voices can be heard whispering. At first glance, the accused women look inconspicuous. But appearances are very deceptive. The woman who gave life to her son Gerhard (name changed) in 2010 almost took it away from him again in 2022. Because of excessive demands and as an educational measure, as the 33-year-old says. The boy lost twenty kilos in a few months. From the perspective of the prosecution, this was due to sadism and slavery. According to the prosecutor, the horror mother tortured the boy under the guidance – and apparently on behalf of – of her once “close friend”. Gerhard was saved literally at the last second. Unbelievable torment The twelve-year-old had to endure unbelievable torment for months. He was admitted to hospital on November 20, 2022, emaciated to 40 kilograms (with a height of 165 centimeters), with a body temperature of 26.5 degrees, massive circulatory problems, open and purulent wounds on his arms and legs and already in a comatose state. Only then did the full extent of the torment gradually come to light. “Death was a done deal.” “Death was a done deal for him,” the public prosecutor states in her opening statement and reports of an “unbelievable martyrdom.” The defendant speaks quietly and in the Waldviertler dialect: “I want him to follow me. Things were always difficult between Gerhard and me. I think he hates me. His behavior wasn’t normal. He was in therapy from a young age.” Both sit quietly in the dock with tears on their faces – and blame each other. When asked why, she usually answers: “Because that’s what she said to me…”. She refers to the second defendant. The women have known each other for a long time and they lived together temporarily during Corona times. The 40-year-old, herself a mother of four children, is said to have used a lie construct to make the 33-year-old submissive – and submissive to her sadistic tendencies. After the twelve-year-old wet the bed several times in the summer of 2022, he was put in a dog bed as punishment banished. “I picked up the wick and he liked it on purpose,” said his mother. Who woke him up by throwing cold water on him. “Where to?” asks Ms. Rat. Answer: “On the head.” In addition, there was permanent deprivation of food. The police took the boy back to his tormentor. Desperate at the beatings and punishments, the 12-year-old piled up over the balcony. Ironically, the police brought the child back to his tormentor. The youth welfare office, which came to the apartment twice in autumn 2022, also did not intervene. To prevent Gerhard from running away again, the woman began to lock the child in the dog crate. Gerhard was forced to remain cooped up for hours, bound and gagged, with cold water poured over him, with the window open. Over and over again. Verdict comes on Thursday “Yes, he did scream,” says the 33-year-old, who took pictures and videos of her child being tortured. She sent this to the second defendant. When the shocking footage was shown in the hall, many of those present shed tears. Jurors also look at each other. They will discuss the penalties on Thursday.
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