On February 18, the Głogów District Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment with the court against the parents Marcin G. and Monika M., accused of abusing their sons: 3-month-old Piotr (previously named Marcin, born on December 13, 2023) and his older brother, 1.5-year-old Filip (born on September 21, 2022).
– The proceedings were initiated by a notification filed by doctors after Piotr G. was taken to hospital in Głogów on February 27, 2024, with his parents reporting that he had choked on milk – explains prosecutor Liliana Łukasiewicz, press spokesperson for the Legnica Regional Prosecutor’s Office. – Because no worrying symptoms were observed at the hospital, the child was discharged.
After returning home, the younger Piotruś continued to cry. On February 28, 2024, Marcin G. struck him in the head with considerable force, causing fractures of both parietal bones of the skull, which resulted in cardiac and respiratory arrest. An ambulance was called again. The prosecutor said: – The father reported that the child had been unable to breathe after being given porridge.
Examinations revealed that the boy had suffered a traumatic brain injury, as well as ischemic and hypoxic changes in the brain. Further examinations revealed, in addition to the fractures of the parietal bones, cerebral edema, which usually develops after severe head trauma.
On March 4, after psychological consultations provided to the parents because of discrepancies in their accounts of the events preceding the child’s cardiac arrest, and after it was established that both parents had received psychiatric treatment in the past but were not taking any medication, particularly in view of the fact that no food residue or signs of choking described by the parents in the medical history were found in the child, while traumatic changes were identified, the Police were notified.
The parents were detained. They were charged and remanded in custody.
The result? Liliana Łukasiewicz:
Both were charged with mentally and physically abusing their minor sons, who were helpless due to their age, between September 25, 2022, and March 4, 2024, including shouting, pushing, striking them on the head and back with an open hand and a fist, kicking them in the torso, and throwing them onto a bed, as well as repeatedly leaving the children unattended. In addition, with regard to their younger son, the parents were charged with causing the boy to suffer fractures of a rib and the skull, as well as numerous ischemic changes in the brain resulting from earlier blows to the head, which constituted an illness that posed a real threat to his life.
The children were placed in foster care.
The prosecutor ordered a detailed medical examination of the older boy, Filip, who showed signs of psychomotor development inappropriate for a child his age.
On May 20, 2024, the younger boy, Piotruś, died. An autopsy was carried out. The spokesperson said: – The medical opinions obtained concerning both boys showed that both victims had been beaten and pushed, thrown against various objects, and dropped onto hard surfaces. As a result of such conduct, particularly by the father, and the mother’s failure to react, whereby she consented to the children being harmed, the victims suffered numerous traumatic brain injuries.
Doctors had no doubt that these injuries had been inflicted through active means and were therefore caused deliberately. The children could not have sustained them accidentally, as their parents suggested.
The opinion concerning the older boy indicates that he had previously suffered numerous head injuries in the form of epidural hematomas, which subsequently led to the development of subdural hygromas and hydrocephalus. The development of the one-and-a-half-year-old child had stopped at the level of a six-month-old child. The injuries constituted serious harm to health in the form of an illness that posed a real threat to life, as well as a serious long-term illness.
With regard to Piotr, experts determined that the severe bodily injuries he sustained led to his death, and therefore he was murdered.
Marcin G., now 41, was ultimately charged with abuse that “resulted in an illness posing a real threat to life and a serious long-term illness” with regard to Filip, and with abuse that “led to the death of the victim on May 20, 2024, and therefore constituted murder” with regard to the younger boy. G. faces up to life imprisonment. It was established that the man was legally sane.
The children’s mother, 36-year-old Monika M., was charged with abusing the boys by shouting at the minors, striking them with her hand, neglecting their developmental needs, and repeatedly leaving the boys unattended at their place of residence, thereby exposing them to the immediate danger of serious harm to their health.
At the same time, the prosecutor charged Monika M. with intentionally, by omission, assisting the children’s father in abusing the boys and, in the case of the younger Piotruś, in his murder. (While caring for the children, she did not react to Marcin G.’s conduct; when asked, she denied the father’s conduct and did not pass information about it to healthcare professionals or childcare and educational institutions.) M. was found to have had diminished responsibility at the time.
The woman could also face life imprisonment. However, as the spokesperson emphasizes:
Because of her diminished responsibility at the time of the offense, the court may apply extraordinary mitigation of punishment to Monika M., under Article 60 § 6 point 2 of the Criminal Code, consisting in imposing a sentence below the statutory minimum, that is, below 15 years. If the act constitutes a felony, as in this case, the court must impose a prison sentence of no less than one-third of the statutory minimum. In the defendant’s case, the court may therefore impose a sentence of between 5 and 15 years’ imprisonment.
Marcin G. did not plead guilty to the acts of which he was accused. He ultimately gave explanations in which he placed responsibility on his partner.
Monika M., questioned as a suspect, also did not plead guilty to the offenses with which she was charged. She later admitted spanking the children and hitting them on the head with a bottle. She also stated that Marcin G. used violence against her and the children. She said that her partner hit the children with his fist and with a “flat object”; regarding the younger son, she said that he pressed his head against a pillow, often picked him up with both hands, lifted and shook him while holding him in front of himself, and threw him onto the bed “like a sack,” while he pushed, moved around, and kicked the older boy. She also stated that on February 28, 2024, Marcin G. struck the younger son “with a clenched fist” after taking him from her arms and began shaking him.
G. remains in pre-trial detention. He has vocational education and is a cook by profession; he was unemployed before his arrest. Investigators said: – The prosecutor emphasized that the above-mentioned man actively used violence against both minor sons throughout their lives, reacting to their everyday behavior with outbursts of anger and engaging in conduct described in the charges, which was also typical of his previous behavior.
Monika M. is currently serving a substitute prison sentence in another case. She has vocational education.
The prosecutor assessed that Monika M. could have left her common-law partner and returned home at any time. She had a telephone and her own source of income. She cared for the children independently, even during her partner’s temporary absences. She could have sought assistance from the Police, social services, and the local community, but did not do so.
The case will be heard by the Legnica Regional Court.