The investigation established that the child’s mother was also struck with the metal object. She suffered minor bodily injuries in the form of a contusion to the head.
On 4 November, the prosecutor conducted a site inspection at the scene. The incident occurred on the evening of Saturday, 8 August 2015. That day, the suspect’s brother came to his apartment with his partner and children, including his 3-month-old daughter Nikola.
The men had been in conflict for some time. Both were intoxicated. They quickly began arguing. As a result, they went outside, where they got into a fight. After the fight, Paweł K. felt that he had lost. Therefore, when his brother, his partner and the child in her arms left the building and headed home, he ran after them. In the yard, he grabbed a metal tube from an old antenna, ran toward the woman carrying the child and swung the rod at her, intending to hit her.
The full force of the blow struck not the mother but the head of the 3-month-old girl. The girl suffered serious bodily injuries, including a depression and fracture of the skull bones, a brain contusion and severe intracerebral bleeding. According to the medical expert appointed in the case, these injuries caused a life-threatening condition.
Shortly after the incident, police officers—called by neighbors during the fight—arrested Paweł K.
The statements of witnesses questioned in the case indicated that the above-mentioned man had acted intentionally. After he sobered up, he was therefore charged with intentionally causing serious bodily injuries to the child. Paweł K. pleaded not guilty and gave explanations presenting increasingly more favorable versions of events for himself.
Due to concerns that he might tamper with the proceedings, for example by persuading witnesses—close relatives and neighbors—to give false testimony, and in view of the severe criminal liability for this type of offense, on 10 August 2015 the prosecutor applied to the court for Paweł K.’s temporary detention. The court agreed with the prosecutor and detained the man.
After the evidence was collected without delay, the detention was lifted on 18 September of the previous year. A non-custodial preventive measure, police supervision, was deemed sufficient to ensure the proper course of the further proceedings.
On 4 November 2015, a site inspection was conducted at the scene with the participation of the child’s mother, her partner and the accused’s brother, as well as the child’s mother’s sister, a direct witness to the incident. The inspection was intended to verify the suspect’s explanations and the witnesses’ statements, and to precisely establish the positions of the individual people relative to one another when the blow was delivered.
The findings from the site inspection were useful in preparing the opinion by an expert from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. Examination of the child’s mother showed that she had also sustained bodily injuries, as the rod had struck her in the head as well, causing contusions that resulted in a health impairment lasting less than seven days.
The doctor maintained that the bodily injuries suffered by the girl, now 8 months old, were serious and caused an illness that posed a real threat to her life. The child is currently undergoing intensive neurological rehabilitation. At her current stage of development, it is difficult to determine the prognosis for her future health.
For this offense, committed against Nikola and her mother, Paweł K. faces a sentence of 1 to 10 years in prison. The case will be decided by the District Court in Lubin.
Liliana Łukasiewicz, press spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica/ii