Accusation: baby injured

Expert witness: “Textbook strangulation trauma”

Salzburg courthouse, seat of the regional court(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

A young father from Flachgau (29) allegedly strangled his child and deliberately caused serious injury. He denies the accusation at the trial in Salzburg Provincial Court. He only grabbed the child as a reflex when it fell off the couch. A forensic pathologist has doubts: "This description does not explain the injury".

Did a man from Flachgau strangle his eight-month-old baby and deliberately cause serious injury? This is the accusation against the father (29) at the trial on Thursday in Salzburg. "He loves his child and would never hurt it," says the defense lawyer. The defendant describes an accident that happened at home in January 2024: He and the child had been lying on the couch. "Suddenly, I saw her catapult forward towards the edge of the table." He reached out reflexively and caught his daughter in the shoulder and neck area. Only very briefly, he says.

The child's mother defends the accused father
The mother was not at home at the time. She had not yet seen any violence, nor was she afraid of him, she said on the witness stand and emphasized: "The child loves her father."

The coroner takes a completely different view: "The description is not suitable to explain the injury." Based on the bleeding on the neck, "blunt force trauma", a strangulation, can be assumed. And the expert with 25 years of professional experience says clearly: "It's the classic picture of a strangulation trauma, just like in the textbook. We have cases where children with such injuries would already be dead."

Since then, he has only been allowed to see the child under supervision. The father and mother are also no longer together. The judge ultimately adjourned the trial in order to obtain information from the custody proceedings.