"Possessed by a Demon"...Austrian Parents Who Let 3-Year-Old Son Die Sentenced to Life

A Horrific Case in Austria Two Years Ago
A Couple in Their 20s Starved Their 3-Year-Old Son to Death Amid Delusions
Signs of Abuse as Well... "Delusions Triggered by Financial Hardship"

A couple in their 20s in Austria has been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of starving their three-year-old son to death.

On February 9 (local time), Yonhap News quoted the Austrian daily Der Standard as reporting that "the Innsbruck Regional Court sentenced a 27-year-old married couple, both the same age, who were indicted on charges of murder, abuse, and unlawful confinement, to life imprisonment and ordered that the wife be committed to a forensic psychiatric facility." Presiding Judge Andreas Mayer stated, "We took into account as mitigating factors that they confessed to the crime, had no prior record, and that the trial took a long time, but the aggravating factors were overwhelmingly greater."

The case sparked public outrage after the couple's son was found dead on May 19, 2024, at their home in the small town of Kufstein near the German border. The three-year-old boy showed signs of having been beaten and was believed to have been locked in a drawer for several days.

At the time he was found, the boy weighed only 4 kilograms, equivalent to a four-month-old infant. The couple also had three daughters aged one, three, and six, but no symptoms of malnutrition were found in them, and they were later separated from their parents and placed in foster care. Forensic expert Elke Doberentz testified in court, "Just by looking at him, you could tell he had died from hunger and thirst," adding, "His face looked like that of an old man, and his body was nothing but skin and bones."

Prosecutors, citing the couple's chat and email records, concluded that they had fallen into such severe financial hardship that they escaped into a delusional world and came to believe that an evil spirit had possessed their deceased son. Believing that the power of the demon depended on the boy's physical condition, they tortured him so that he would die in agony. It was also determined that the couple incited each other to commit the abuse and took pleasure in it.

In their closing argument, prosecutors stressed, "We have never dealt with anything this horrific in this region, or even anywhere in Austria." The Innsbruck public prosecutor's office said, "The parents abused the child mentally and physically in a horrific way," and added, "They isolated and confined their son from the rest of the family life, treated him in a completely inhuman manner, and subjected him to humiliation."

The boy's death came to light after the husband reported it to the police, and the couple admitted to the charges against them. However, the defense attorney argued, "The wife was exposed to severe neglect and violence in her childhood and suffered psychological pressure from an unwanted pregnancy, among other things," claiming, "This was not a coldly calculated crime." In response, a psychiatric evaluator concluded that the wife was mentally competent and criminally responsible. In court, the husband said, "There is no way to explain my actions," adding, "I am sorry that our other children had to witness our son's death and suffering."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.