Belgrade man receives maximum sentence for domestic violence: 6 years for horrific child abuse

At the proposal of the Second Basic Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, a court has sentenced B.P., a resident of the Belgrade neighborhood of Kaludjerica, to six years in prison and the security measure of compulsory treatment for alcoholism.

B.P. stood accused of committing acts of domestic violence and sexual abuse of minors, i.e., his underage daughters.

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This is the toughest sentence handed down so far for the crime of domestic violence and child abuse, the prosecution said.

B.P. was found guilty and convicted for beating his minor daughters by using his hands and feet in an assault that took place on July 1, 2011. One of the children hit her head on a wardrobe during the attack, sustaining injuries.

Next, from early 2012 until May 7, 2013, he performed sexual acts against his daughters, whom he would first order to go to separate rooms so they wouldn't know what is happening, touch them on the body, and then repeatedly enter the children's bedrooms in order to touch their genitalia.

After committing these crimes, B.P. was not available to the state authorities until March 15 this year, when he committed the crime of domestic violence against his ex-wife, violating a restraining order he had issued against him.

On that day, he arrived drunk at a house he co-owned with his ex-wife, started banging on the door threatening to set the house on fire, to then turned off electricity and water for the occupants and start knocking on a window, with the woman trying to chase him away.

When she opened the shutters the next morning, B.P. was still sitting on the doorstep of the house, drinking hard liquor.

He then began to douse the window with a liquid from a water  bottle, at the same time burning pieces of paper and throwing them in that direction, as well as lit cigarettes. At some point he got up and started pulling the shutter from the window, banging his fists on it, saying, "Come out, you mice, I'll set you on fire." He was arrested shortly afterwards and has been in custody ever since.

Following an investigation into the newly committed crime, the prosecution requested that the proceedings be brought before a court, which has been done. At the end of the main trial the prosecution asked that B.P. be sentenced to a unified sentence of six years in prison for this series of crimes, and the measure of mandatory treatment for alcoholism.

Photo illustration: Profimedia/Alamy

The prosecution's motion was fully upheld by the first instance verdict. The defense can appeal the judgement.

The Second Basic Prosecutor's Office says that this is only one of the cases in which the prosecution has demanded long-term prison sentences even before the new provisions of the Criminal Code came into force which allow for stricter punishment of abusers.

After the new provisions came into force on December 1, abusers can expect an even tougher Criminal Code policy that will be implemented as an adequate response to the violence they had committed, the prosecution said.

Since the beginning of this year,detention has been ordered against 120 defendants at the Second Basic Prosecutor's Office on suspicion that they committed acts of domestic violence.

Since the implementation of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (of June 1, 2017), approximately 12,000 reported cases of violence have been considered as part of the activities of coordination groups.

Video: Abusers blackmail children, and their worst threats eventually come true

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)