The tragic event took place on January 23 this year around 2 pm in the Náchod region. The defendant, who is a believer and has never been punished, placed a pillow on her mother’s face and began to suffocate her. “Subsequently, she wrapped a clothesline around her neck, pulled it by force and strangled the victim,” said prosecutor Lenka Faltusová in the indictment.
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According to members of a close family, but also, for example, neighbors, everything happened due to the total mental and physical exhaustion of the defendant. She took care of her mother for a long time, for the last 2.5 months practically continuously day and night. And as a nurse from a mobile hospice said in court, her care was above standard. Still, she didn’t believe her and worried she couldn’t take better care.
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“The day was difficult, my mother had stomach problems. The wife was exhausted from it. And mentally. Still, she said it would be good to do it. We said goodbye and I went to bed around 10 o’clock. When I got up in the morning, I saw my grandmother that she was cold. I ran after my wife, she was lying and she was wearing a bloodline, “my husband described the fateful event, saying that he immediately called an ambulance. It turned out that the defendant tried to take her own life immediately after the act. Only an urgent operation saved her. He is still in the care of a psychiatrist.
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“I feel guilty that I didn’t make it,” the defendant admitted, revealing that she was considering putting her mother back in hospital care. “But she didn’t want to go there. She was in the hospital a month after her neck surgery, and her condition was getting worse there. She wanted to be home, “said the sadly accused.
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The exceptional nature of the case was realized by all participants, which led both the defense and the indictment to the proposal to reclassify the crime from murder to murder. And the court agreed, according to which the defendant acted in strong agitation from the excusable movement of the mind due to a long-lasting state of extreme mental frustration, exhaustion and stress with accompanying fatigue and severe depression from the hopeless situation of an immobile terminally ill mother.
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“I never thought I had a husband, children, that it could be solved differently. I felt so distressed that I couldn’t go on saying that I wanted to end it, “the defendant continued, admitting that sometimes she still has thoughts of suicide. “But then I say to myself that I’ve done enough trouble for my family. I regret the act every day, “she said softly, her throat tightened with regret.
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“For me and my colleagues, it was an absolutely exceptional case, which we perceive as a tragic personal event that I have not encountered yet,” said Senate President Miroslav Veselský, who also raised the question of whether our healthcare system is able to ensure a dignified life for seniors and their dignified dying. “I would also like to thank the defendant’s family for helping to share their mother’s suffering, because she will no longer erase the act from her mind. He suffers from deep feelings of guilt and shame, “added Veselský.
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