Prague court: mother on trial for abusing her four children

Prague Municipal Court is hearing the case of a 35-year-old woman accused of repeatedly and deliberately beating and psychologically tormenting her four children between 2014 and 2023. According to prosecutor Jana Murinová, the children were born to her and her husband in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.

What the mother is accused of

According to the indictment, the woman punished the children disproportionately, for example for an untidy room or for going to the playground without permission. She hit them on the buttocks and hands with a wooden spoon, choked them until they lost consciousness, struck them on the head with the edge of a mobile phone, and banged their heads against a wall or a refrigerator. Over time, the behavior became more frequent and more violent.

The prosecution says she broke her eldest daughter's forearm when the girl was 11 months old, later threw her through a glass door and caused post-traumatic cataract in her eye. She allegedly broke another girl's arm when the child was a two-month-old baby. She is accused of causing the eldest boy an open arm fracture by dragging him off a bunk bed. A tailor's needle was found embedded in his shin. The children were left with scars on their faces and bodies, and out of fear of their mother they told outsiders that they had hurt themselves or been injured playing with their siblings.

What the defendant and the children say

“I understand the seriousness of the situation, and I am sorry,” the woman said in court, reading a short prepared statement. She said she had promised to work toward being able to hug all of her children in the future, and that empty arms are the greatest punishment for her.

She was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital, denied the charges, and assured the judge over a video link that she did not understand his questions, so the main hearing got under way only after several attempts.

The eldest daughter, then in third grade, told police: “At the doctor's, Mom pretended to be kind to us. But at home she behaved horribly.” The court was shown the recording. The girl described how her mother “went wild,” slapped her for a C at school, jabbed her with a pencil for mistakes in a dictation and chased her father with a knife, almost running him over with a car. She said she never wants to see her mother again and does not miss her.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz