Four years ago the mother wounded her little son in the abdomen. She inflicted several injuries that seriously endangered his life. She cut her own veins. Doctors in Bolesławiec saved them both.
The mother was not convicted because the court found that she was legally insane. She spent two years in a psychiatric hospital. Recently, she applied for visitation with the children. The court in Bolesławiec decided that she could see them, but only in the presence of their father and a probation officer. The Regional Court in Jelenia Góra changed the ruling, and the mother may now see the children at her home, without their father, but only in the presence of a probation officer.
“I believe that the court in Bolesławiec handled the matter very professionally,” Wojciech Kasprzyk told istotne.pl. “However, not only did the court in Jelenia Góra fail to conduct a detailed analysis of the evidence, it also issued an imprecise ruling, because it is difficult to determine from it the time, place and manner of the probation officer’s work. We will fight to change this ruling. The father does not oppose the mother’s contact with the children. He only wants it to take place in his presence. He agrees that the mother should rebuild her relationship with her sons. He simply does not want to leave the mother alone with the children. Four years ago, this ended with the mother intending to kill her child,” the attorney added.
Attorney Wojciech Kasprzyk and lawyer Małgorzata Gruszecka are defense lawyers in the widely publicized case of Dominik, who in October 2017 stabbed his intoxicated mother and killed her 36-year-old partner.
Seweryn and Joanna
Seweryn and Joanna have two children: Julian was born in 2011 and Emil in 2012. Seweryn found work abroad and left, returning home every two or three weeks for seven days. Joanna raised their two- and three-year-old sons alone. Her husband did not know that Joanna was mentally ill; he claims that his wife concealed her health problems from him.
The tragedy occurred on April 1, 2014. Joanna was alone at home with her younger, not-yet-two-year-old son. First, she stabbed the sleeping Emil several times in the abdomen, then wounded herself. A neighbor, who had once worked in an operating theater, came to the aid of the woman and child. Thanks to her composure, the injured woman and child did not bleed to death before the ambulance arrived.
Emil had a deep cut on his wrist with tendon damage, as well as five wounds to the abdominal cavity. His mother damaged his small and large intestines and stomach with a knife; as a result of the wounds, the child suffered hemorrhagic shock and respiratory failure, which directly threatened his life. Considering how serious the wounds were and how many cuts and stabs there were, it can be concluded that Joanna wanted to kill her son.
Doctors in Bolesławiec fought for the child’s life for several hours. The team of doctors and nurses who saved the little boy included: surgeon Paweł Remiszewski, anesthesiologist Grzegorz Szocińki, operating-room nurse Edyta Babiasz, surgeon Krzysztof Mildner, operating-room nurse Barbara Fraś, and emergency department head Nikolaj Lambrinow.
Why did she want to kill the child?
According to expert witnesses, the mother’s mental illness was the cause of the aggressive attack against both the child and herself. The experts testified that Joanna had suffered from mental illness for many years.
Although the court established that Joanna had acted with the intent to take her son’s life, it also found that the woman had committed the act without awareness of it—she lacked the capacity to understand the significance of her actions and control her conduct.
Punishment
The court ordered the mother to be placed in a secure psychiatric facility. Joanna left the hospital after two years with a diagnosis that her illness had subsided, and a psychiatrist stated that her condition was stable and good; she only needed to take medication and remain under psychiatric supervision.
The District Court, concerned for the children’s safety, initially scheduled only two meetings a year for the mother, in the presence of the father and a court-appointed probation officer, at the children’s and father’s place of residence. In the court’s assessment, because of her mental illness Joanna should not meet the children alone. It also allowed the mother to contact them by telephone and through online messaging services.
Joanna appealed the decision, and the court in Jelenia Góra granted the mother the right to personal contact with her sons once a month, for example, taking them for a walk under the supervision of a probation officer. The District Court found that mental illness could not deprive the mother of the opportunity to rebuild an emotional bond with her children.
Emilian and Julian currently live with their father, his partner Nina, and her children. Nina and Seweryn have created a stable home for the children.
