There is a large crowd outside the jury courtroom in Krems (Lower Austria) on Monday morning: one and a half years after the atrocities committed by a woman from the Waldviertel region against her own child became known, the 33-year-old mother is now on trial for attempted murder, torture and neglect.

Alongside the woman, her former best friend is also sitting before the jury. She is said to have given the instructions for the horrific acts.

Eerie silence in the courtroom
When the door opens at around 9 a.m. and the two women enter the courtroom, there is an eerie silence. "The horror mother and her sadistic friend", voices can be heard whispering. At first glance, the accused women look inconspicuous. But appearances are very deceptive. The woman who gave her son Gerhard (name changed) his life in 2010 almost took it away from him again in 2022. Out of excessive demands and as an educational measure, as the 33-year-old says.

Boy lost twenty kilos in just a few months
From the prosecution's point of view, due to sadism and bondage. According to the prosecutor, the horrific mother tortured the boy under the guidance - and apparently also on behalf - of her once "devoted friend". Gerhard was saved literally at the last second.

Unbelievable agony
For months, the twelve-year-old had to endure unbelievable torture. Emaciated to 40 kilograms (with a height of 165 centimetres), with a body temperature of 26.5 degrees, massive circulatory disorders, open and festering wounds on his arms and legs and already in a comatose state, he was admitted to hospital on 20 November 2022. Only then did the full extent of his suffering gradually come to light.

"Death was a foregone conclusion"
"Death was a foregone conclusion for him", the public prosecutor states in her opening statement and talks about an "incomprehensible ordeal". The defendant speaks softly and in Waldviertel dialect: "I wanted him to follow me. It was always difficult between Gerhard and me. I thought he hated me. His behavior wasn't normal. He was in therapy from an early age."

Quietly, with tear-stained faces, they both sit in the dock - and blame each other. When asked why, she usually answers: "Because she said it to me like that...". She refers to the second defendant.

The women have known each other for some time, they lived together temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic. The 40-year-old, herself the mother of four children, is said to have used a web of lies to make the 33-year-old submissive - and submissive to her sadistic tendencies.

After the twelve-year-old wet his bed several times in the summer of 2022, he was banished to a dog bed as punishment. "I thought he did it on purpose," said his mother. She woke him up by pouring cold water on him. "Where?" asks Mrs. Rat. Answer: "On his head." He was also permanently deprived of food.

Police brought the boy back to his tormentor
Desperate to escape the beatings and punishments, the 12-year-old ran over the balcony. The police, of all people, brought the child back to his tormentor. Even the youth welfare office, which came to the apartment twice in the fall of 2022, did not intervene. To prevent Gerhard from running away again, the woman began to lock the child in the dog crate. Crammed in for hours, bound and gagged, with cold water poured over him, Gerhard had to stay there with the window open. Over and over again.

Verdict on Thursday
"Yes, he did scream," says the 33-year-old, who took pictures and videos of her child being tortured. She sent these to the second defendant. When the harrowing footage is shown in the courtroom, many of those present are in tears. Jurors also grab their eyes. They will deliberate on the sentences on Thursday.