Mother in court

Toddlers beaten up: “I never wanted them”

Domestic violence as a topic at the Eisenstadt Regional Court. The defendant displays her statement on her chest. There is no sign of remorse - that's just the way it was, what can you do now?

(Bild: HS, Krone KREATIV)

A woman from Burgenland took her anger towards her husband out on the boys. The cameras installed documented the assaults. At the trial at Eisenstadt Regional Court, the woman wore a sweater with the words "Fuck off" printed on it.

We remember: the generation that will soon be retiring had to dress up every Sunday when they were children so that their parents didn't have to be embarrassed when they went for a walk. As a young adult, you wore a tie when you applied for a loan at the bank. What would we have worn back then if we were on trial as defendants?

How do you translate that?
"Fuck off" is written on the sweatshirt of this woman sitting opposite the judge. Google translates the statement as "Fuck off", in the outskirts of Vienna this would probably be interpreted as "Go fuck off, Oida!".

No, I didn't beat the boys every day. It was more like weekly. The kicks couldn't have hurt the little one at all - he always had a diaper on.

Die angeklagte Mutter beim Prozess am Landesgericht Eisenstadt.

And now she's sitting there at the Eisenstadt Regional Court, disregarding the law and spouting off scraps of words. The two boys, one and a half and three years old at the time, were not wanted children. Videos are played in room 1. Recorded by the father, who had installed cameras at home. The little ones are beaten, verbally abused, dragged around the room, pulled by the ears and kicked between the legs. "But nothing could have happened anyway because the little one was wearing a diaper."

Just because he was grunting
It is not only the father of the children, with whom the boys are now staying after a stay at the SOS Children's Village, who is making serious accusations. A neighbor also speaks out. "The mother was horrible to the children. Once she got mad because the little one was grunting. Then she kicked him."

"Fell off the couch"
The woman from Central Burgenland, who is not even 30 years old, pleads partly guilty. "They inflicted the bruises themselves when they fell off the couch, for example," says the "fuck-off" woman, who answers questions open-heartedly. Did she hit them? "Yes." Did she kick them? "Well, not in the stomach. Just pushed her away." Was she violent towards her sons on a daily basis? "No, more like weekly. But only when they were annoying."

The jury deliberates for an unusually long time: 20 months' imprisonment, suspended for three years. Probation assistance is also ordered for the duration of the probationary period. The verdict is not final. May the boys be safe with their father.