Parents from the Balkans appeared before the court in Vienna, accused of attempting to kill their two-month-old baby, whom the Austrian media call “baby Lina”.
The father, who has been in pre-trial detention since May last year, allegedly shook the child so hard that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and several broken ribs. The mother is accused of negligence, because she did not help the child.
At the trial before the jury, both defendants pleaded not guilty. The woman stated that she remained silent out of fear of her partner and that she was not aware of the severity of the injuries.
– I didn’t want my child to die, she said.
The father’s lawyer, Mihael Dor, rejected claims that his client was ever violent towards baby Lina and implied that the mother, a nurse, could have been responsible for the injuries, reports Oslobođenje.
At the end of May 2025, the child was brought to the hospital due to an attack. Medical findings indicated suspicion of abuse, so the hospital filed a report. Doctors found numerous serious injuries – almost all the ribs of the two-month-old baby were broken, along with bleeding in the brain and retina, and the problem was also caused by dangerous swelling of the brain due to the accumulation of fluid. Without emergency surgery, the child could have died.
According to the indictment, a 35-year-old German, originally from the Balkans, violently shook the girl for several seconds at least twice between mid-April and May 28, 2025. The consequences of “shaken baby syndrome” can be fatal or lead to permanent damage. The girl, who is now in a foster family, is slowly recovering.
The mother, by the way, who the media reports is Croatian, admitted in court that she once saw him shake her, but not strongly. In essence, she denied knowing about the child abuse. She attributed two brief losses of consciousness to the vaccination.
– I didn’t know he was a monster, she said.
The woman realized very quickly that he was prone to violence. The expert even recommended his placement in a forensic center due to dissociative personality disorder. The Croatian woman said in court that she met him in early 2024 through a dating app, while he was still in prison. Just four weeks after their first date, he hit her for the first time.
From July 2024, he regularly beat and strangled her. During her pregnancy, he punched her in the stomach. She never sought help because this Balkan man threatened to “find her wherever she goes” and threatened her family.
– I was afraid, said the Croatian woman.
The trial continues, they report Independent.
(TIP/Photo: Printscreen/oe24.at)
