Supreme Court upholds sentence for man who abused family for decades
Judge rejected arguments from a man from the Pardubice region who tormented his wife for twenty years and subsequently his daughter. He considers the five-year prison sentence disproportionately harsh.
Supreme Court upholds sentence for man who abused family for decades
Justice dismissed an appeal by a man from Eastern Bohemia who systematically abused his partner for two decades and subsequently his own child. The perpetrator will serve five years in prison, yet he sought to have his sentence reduced and disputed the severity of the suffering he caused.
According to the final judgment, the man long mistreated his wife. He repeatedly drove her out of the flat, destroyed shared belongings, refused any communication for weeks and physically attacked her. This behaviour lasted approximately twenty years.
The aggressor later began treating his daughter in the same way. Aware of her mental health problems, he insulted her profanely and made threats. After one of his outbursts, the girl ended up in hospital with a concussion. The abuse of his daughter lasted around ten years.
Both victims bear deep consequences. Both the mother and daughter developed post-traumatic stress disorder associated with chronic psychological difficulties. The defendant, however, downplayed these diagnoses.
"Psychological harm can be as serious as physical harm. Permanent fear, anxiety disorders, isolation from others, self-harm or suicidality are not merely 'psychological difficulties', but can constitute serious harm to health with full consequences for criminal liability," explained court spokeswoman Gabriela Tomíčková.
The man contested the legal assessment of the abuse of his daughter. He argued that the court applied an overly strict classification when evaluating the act as abuse of a person in a shared household, even though he was also found guilty of abuse of a person in his care.
"The perpetrator cannot benefit from the fact that one of the persons long subjected to abuse was his own child," Tomíčková responded. The ruling thus sends a clear signal that the legal system refuses any minimisation of the suffering of victims of domestic violence.
Source: Novinky.cz
Source: Novinky.cz