Kallithea: an 8-year-old victim of domestic violence slept fasting in the courtyard of the police station

A sweet 8-year-old creature, a victim of domestic violence at the Kallithea Police Department , experienced an unimaginable adventure a few days ago . The 8-year-old girl was kept in the Department from the afternoon until the next morning, and was forced to sleep fasting in the AT yard on plastic chairs and in a corridor.

According to the foster parents of the 8-year-old girl, the Service Officer claimed that he could not find anyone in the prosecutor's office to indicate further actions, so the child was detained in the Department.

As kallitheaonline.gr reports , it has not yet been clarified why someone was not informed immediately to pick up the 8-year-old girl so that she would not spend the night at Kallithea Police Station. At the same time, according to the same information, no one cared to offer the little girl a meal, and her foster parents and biological mother were all incarcerated and could not get out.

At the same time, sources from the Prosecutor's Office report that a verbal prosecutorial order was given to notify a person in the family environment to pick up the child from the Department, which was not done until the next day.

18 months in prison for the mother

It all started when the child's father reported the 8-year-old's biological mother for beating the child.

By decision of the Court of First Instance of Rodopi (51/2020) custody of the child is given to the Standard National Kindergarten of Kallithea and then he is placed in a foster family. It is worth noting that PEN Kallithea never stopped operating.

In February 2023, the child's biological mother, 40 years old from Uzbekistan, was sentenced by the three-member Court of Misdemeanors of Rodopi to 18 months in prison for continuous bodily harm to the 8-year-old, specifically for the period from January 2018 to January of 2019.

In October 2023, the Court of First Instance of Rodopi with a new decision (213/2023) gives custody of the 8-year-old to her mother on the condition that the 40-year-old cooperates with the services responsible for minors, while the 8-year-old is already in the foster family in Athens.

"I do not want to leave"

A few days ago, on October 26, 2023, the mother of the 8-year-old goes to the Model National Kindergarten of Kallithea to pick her up, with the little girl persistently refusing to follow her.

The President of PEN , Iro Zervaki, tells the 40-year-old mother that after 4 years in the foster family it will not be easy for the child to give up everything overnight and that the recommendation of the social service of the Model National Kindergarten is to give a period of certain days for the adaptation and preparation of the child for his return to his biological family. Indeed, this is what the Juvenile Prosecutor also ordered.

However, the 8-year-old's biological mother appeared adamant with the little girl stating that she does not want to be forced to follow her mother.

The meeting was interrupted with the continuation being given to the AT Kallithea with the 40-year-old asking for criminal prosecution for the kidnapping of a minor of the President of PEN, Iros Zervakis as well as the foster parents of the 8-year-old. The foster parents of the 8-year-old girl, in turn, sued the 40-year-old girl for false accusation, with the consequence that they were all detained to be tried by the spontaneous procedure the next day. Among them the 8-year-old girl who took out the night in the courtyard outside the AT Kallithea detention center.

In particular, the child stayed at AT Kallithea the whole night from 5 pm on October 26 until at least the next morning on October 27. As her foster mother reported, because of the adventure she experienced since the morning, the child was psychologically a wreck. As if this was not enough, the 8-year-old was forced to sleep in the courtyard of AT Kallithea and at about 3 in the morning the foster mother took the child from the courtyard and slept on top of her in a corridor.

It is worth noting that although there was a person to collect the child, this person was never called until the next morning, that is, after the 8-year-old girl spent the night as if she were a prisoner. And this person was the grandmother, specifically the mother of the foster mother of the 8-year-old.

To this day, it remains unknown with which prosecutor's order the child was detained at the Kallithea detention center or which police officer ordered the 8-year-old to remain in these miserable conditions inside the detention center.

"I don't feel like you're my mom"

The adventure for the 8-year-old did not end there, as yesterday Tuesday (7/11) she almost found herself at the Kallithea Police Station again.

The deadline given by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office from November 1 for the child to remain in the PEN and to do everything necessary for the adaptation and preparation of the child for his return to Rodopi and indeed the biological parents of the 8-year-old ended yesterday (7/ 11). The biological parents of the 8-year-old rushed to the PEN to pick her up, but they were once again confronted by the child himself openly stating that he did not wish to return to them, as he mentioned several times, he was afraid.

The 8-year-old for an hour and a half in front of her biological mother, two lawyers, two social workers from the Attica Region, the Social Worker, the Psychologist and two representatives from the PEN Board of Directors, as well as two bailiffs who recorded everything, explained the reasons for the whom she does not wish to return to her mother.

The 8-year-old answered with too much courage for her age to the questions of the social workers and the psychologist, but also of her biological mother.

"I don't want to be with you", "I don't feel like you're my mom", "since I was little I've been afraid that you'll hit me again", said the 8-year-old, among other things.

However, given the child's refusal to follow the biological mother, it was agreed that the foster parents would meet today with the child's biological parents in the presence of the Region's social workers in order to find a mutually acceptable formula that would not deprive the child of the correct psycho-spiritual of development. It is worth noting that the foster parents have repeatedly sought cooperation with the biological parents.

In any case, an 8-year-old girl who actually comes from an abusive environment and after such an adventure that she lived that day fighting alone to convince the adults that she is afraid to return to her biological parents, does not belong to spend the night with a police officer section... fasting... thrown like the sack either in the yard, or in the corridor.