Sometimes the child’s own parent causes the child’s death either through gross negligence or even murder.
The mother and stepfather of the 4-year-old child who died in Joensuu, who have now received their sentence, are not the only ones who have caused the death of a child or their partner’s child with a crime.
In Joensuu’s case, the crime was aggravated manslaughter. The same title is also in at least two other infant deaths, which Iltalehti has previously reported on. In neither of these actions was it an accident or a traffic accident, but the parent had been grossly negligent, which can result in a maximum of six years in prison.
Iltalehti has thoroughly told the 8-year-old Vilja Eerikan about the murder, about which more at the end of this story. Vilja Eerika’s fate was about intentional homicide, murder. From the beginning, the mother and stepfather of the four-year-old Joensuu were suspected of such a thing.
There is also a very recent shocking crime against a baby.
Last week we reported on Espoo’s November baby abuse verdict. Fortunately, the baby’s life was saved at the hospital.
At the end of that trial, the district court sent the baby’s mother straight to prison.
Keskonen ended up in the toilet bowl
In 2009, a woman in her early twenties gave birth to a child prematurely in a student dormitory in North Ostrobothnia.
Ambulance personnel found the dead child in the toilet seat.
The emergency center had received information that it was a miscarriage. Thus, the task assigned to the ambulance was not urgent. The ambulance arrived several tens of minutes after the birth. At that time, the child was already lifeless.
The child was born at 30 weeks of pregnancy and weighed 1,600 grams. The child had been alive at birth, but had either been drowned or suffocated to death.
The prosecutor demanded that the mother be punished for death, infanticide or aggravated manslaughter.
In court, the young woman stated that she did not know she was pregnant. The birth had started so suddenly and unexpectedly that she didn’t immediately understand what was going on.
The district court found the woman guilty of aggravated manslaughter and sentenced her to a one and a half year suspended prison sentence.
According to the district court, the woman should have at least checked the baby’s condition after the birth and asked other people in the dormitory for help.
A disabled boy died in his home
A severely disabled boy died of epilepsy, hunger and thirst in a small town in Southern Pohja at the end of 2020. The police found the young deceased in his own home.
The mother had taken the boy who was in the institution in the spring for home care for fear of corona infection. Months at home were the fate of the child.
The child’s medication was inadequate. He was also not getting enough of the nutrient solution that was given to him through a feeding device.
The mother was the boy’s caregiver, but the father, who lives elsewhere, came for Christmas according to the agreement to take care of the boy.
The district court convicted the boy’s parents of aggravated manslaughter. Jussi Mustikkamaa
In the trial, it turned out that the parents had not bought enough nutritional solution for their son for reasons of economy.
The parents denied the crime. According to them, the boy had died of his severe illness.
The prosecutor demanded a sentence for the parents for aggravated manslaughter. The district court also sentenced them for that.
Both received a suspended prison sentence of one year and eight months. The judgment of the district court has gained legal force.
Shocking act of parents
The parents beat up the baby boy in Espoo last fall exceptionally cruelly. The baby’s life was saved only thanks to the intensive care given at the hospital.
The parents handled the baby, who was only 2-11 weeks old, during treatment so hard that he got bruises on his face, ribs and a broken collarbone. Likewise, the little one suffered extensive skull fractures and intracranial bleeding, resulting in a brain injury.
The parents brought the baby to Jorvi Hospital in the morning of November 14. From Jorvi, the little one was delivered to the New Children’s Hospital for emergency surgery.
The baby’s head was swollen. The head had clearly been hit.
Jorvi’s parents had initially been unaware of what had caused the attack. However, the mother had told the doctor that the child had fallen in her arms.
Mom to jail
Then the parents offered another explanation. The child had been put to sleep in the sitter and the sitter in an upright position. The child fell from the brackets to the floor.
The police investigated the sitter who was in the Espoo family’s apartment. It was fully functional.
The hospital found out that not all the injuries could have been caused by a blow to the head. The little one had been injured before.
The woman was charged with attempted murder and both parents were charged with several aggravated assaults.
The West Uusimaa district court gave its verdict on Wednesday of last week. The court dismissed the woman’s attempted murder charge because she had brought the child to the hospital and thus prevented the death. The woman’s crime in this regard is aggravated assault.
The court also found that both abused the baby repeatedly. They committed a crime called “aggravated assault”.
The 28-year-old man received a prison sentence of two years and six months, and the 27-year-old woman received a prison sentence of three years and ten months.
The court sent the woman to Vantaa prison. The judgment is not binding. Both parents have expressed their displeasure with it.
The social bureaucracy went blind
An 8-year-old from Helsinki Vilja Eerikan the murder shook Finland in the spring of 2012. The girl was tied to a tarp and a sheet for the night. The child had suffocated.
Before the death of the four-year-old in Joensuu, this is perhaps the most shocking murder in all of Finland.
The girl had been abused at home for a long time. He had been tied up earlier at night. The girl had been run around in the yard in a way that had shocked the neighbors. One neighbor had also noticed the bruises on the girl’s face.
Vilja Eerika’s stepmother had been involved in the abuse, but her own father had also been involved in the acts.
Vilja Eerika’s stepmother Sari Laamanen photographed in Helsinki district court in March 2013. Matti Matikainen
The girl’s bruises and poor general condition were noticed at school.
Both the neighbors and the principal of the girl’s school had made child protection reports. Vilja Eerika’s own mother had also made reports, but the woman’s story was not taken seriously.
In total, reports about the girl were filed 11 times.
However, at no point did the reports lead to the girl getting help. Child welfare social workers did not find out the real home conditions of the eight-year-old girl.
A web of lies
The child himself was not heard from.
The girl’s father was good at talking and explaining things in the best way. Among other things, he had lied to the social authorities that the family of three would soon move from a studio apartment to a larger apartment.
The man had lied to the principal that he was in contact with the doctor and family counsellor. The principal couldn’t help but believe.
Vilja Eerika’s stepmother presented herself to social services under a false name and claimed to be a foreign doctor. In reality, he was a Finnish nursing student.
On top of that, the woman claimed she was expecting four babies. The pregnancy continued for more than a year.
The social authorities’ activities were also slowed down by vacation periods. Vilja Eerika’s affairs did not progress when the social worker taking care of him was on vacation.
Vilja Eerika’s father was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in November 2013 at the Helsinki Court of Appeal. The stepmother received the same sentence. The Supreme Court rejected the applications for leave to appeal.
Touko Tarkki was sentenced for the murder of his daughter. Matti Matikainen
Later, four social workers and seven healthcare professionals were charged with official misconduct.
Most of the charges were dropped, but two social workers were convicted. The leading social worker was fined 625 euros for a negligent act.
The Helsinki District Court also sentenced the social worker responsible for Vilja Eerika’s affairs, but did not sentence him. The reason was that his health had collapsed due to the incident.
The trial revealed that the healthcare workers did not know about the numerous child protection notifications. So they had believed the stories of Vilja Eerika’s father and stepmother.
The girl herself hadn’t said anything.
The district court judgment remained in force.
The story was corrected on March 4, 2024 at 4:56 p.m. In the second paragraph, the parents of the child from Joensuu were mistakenly spoken about, even though the mother and stepfather received the verdict.
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