Mother Sentenced to 20 Years for Attempted Murder of Child

She cut the wrists of her then four-year-old son in May 2022 and inflicted injuries on one arm with a knife. Then she ran to a neighbor, thanks to whose help the child was saved at the last moment. The accused is also admitted to a forensic therapeutic center.

“This is by far the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” said judge Florian Farmer. The accused came to Austria because she finally wanted to free herself from her family in Slovakia. She worked as a geriatric nurse for a few years, in 2016 she moved to Graz, where she met an Afghan and had a child in 2017. She lived a completely withdrawn life and suffered from depression.

In 2022 her boyfriend informed her that he would marry another woman and move to Upper Austria. On May 31, 2022, according to her own statements, she wanted to “complete everything” and destroyed her cell phone. She took a knife, went to her sleeping child and cut his wrists open. According to prosecutor Alexandra Ibler, the cuts were very deep. Then she injured herself. She carried the heavily bleeding child into the bathroom and put it in the shower tray. “I’m cold,” the boy is said to have said. So she got his blanket and tucked him in.

Then she went to the neighbor and wanted to call her mother. The courageous woman called the rescue service, ran to the next apartment and gave first aid to the heavily bleeding child. The boy was saved after a four-hour operation, the injuries left permanent damage to his hands. “The psychological injuries are just as bad,” emphasized the prosecutor.

The accused said she saw no future for herself and the child. “I had a lot of problems and I wanted to die,” she said. Bringing the child to her family was not a solution for her. “I wanted to die and take my son with me.” But after she had put the bleeding child in the bathroom, she went to the neighbor and wanted to call her mother, but there was initially no question of rescue. “Why didn’t you want to die anymore? When your son was dying?”, the judge didn’t give up and stated that she hadn’t shown any remorse until now: “You never said that you were sorry,” he remarked chairman. The then partner and father of the boy decided not to testify.

The accused’s neighbor, a student, was also heard as a witness. She described how the 42-year-old rang her and wanted to borrow her cell phone to call her mother. She didn’t reach them right away, so she tried again after a few minutes. The neighbor then noticed the wound on her arm and asked if something had happened to the child. “She said something terrible happened to her son.” She didn’t want to be rescued, but the student insisted on getting medical help. Then she went into the next apartment and found the bleeding child in the shower tray. “She screamed, I’m not allowed in the apartment,” said the witness, who didn’t stick to it. “I tried to squeeze the wounds until the rescue came,” she described the situation. “I can only say thank you. Without you, the little one would not be alive,” said the judge to the witness.

The psychiatric expert Manfred Walzl classified the accused as “reduced sanity”. She has a combined personality disorder and went through a “severe depressive episode” at the time. The expert emphasized that the risk of a repeat incident is increased because it suppresses the crime.

The jury unanimously found the woman guilty. The sentence is 20 years in prison, and admission to a forensic therapeutic center was also ordered. The judgment is not final.

Are you in a desperate situation and need help? Talk to other people about it. The Ministry of Health’s Suicide Prevention Portal offers support for people with suicidal thoughts and their families. Under www.suizid-praevention.gv.at You can find contact details for aid organizations in Austria.