VIENNA: An Innsbruck court has sentenced an Austrian couple to life in prison for the murder and torture of their 3-year-old son, reported German news agency dpa, quoting a APA news agency report on Monday.
A forensic medical expert told the court in evidence that the boy weighed just 4 kilogrammes when he died in May 2024.
“The child had the face of an elderly person, and the body was just skin and bones,” she said.
The spokeswoman of the Innsbruck district court said the mother has been referred to a centre for psychologically disturbed criminals. The sentence is still subject to appeal.
The boy was found starved of food and deprived of water in Kufstein in Tyrol state, close to the German border.
The prosecuting attorney said the child had suffered the “tortures of hell” for months. She described how the boy had been locked in a dark room, tied up, beaten and provided with hardly any food.
The charges relied on chat messages and photographic evidence shared between the father and mother, both aged 27. The two encouraged each other laughed about their son as he suffered, the prosecutor said.
APA reported that the parents had confessed. The father told the court that he had no explanation for his behaviour. He expressed regret and said he was sorry that his other children had known about their brother’s suffering and death.
The couple also has three daughters.
The mother did not respond to the charges in court. According to the defence, she had been psychologically overwhelmed after a number of pregnancies, some of which had been unwanted.
A court psychiatrist said the mother was seriously disturbed psychologically, blaming her son for her situation. -BERNAMA-dpa
