Dąbrowa Górnicza. An eight-year-old boy returned to his parents accused of violence. They published on the Internet how they were strangling their son

Urszula P. and Robert P. from Dąbrowa Górnicza were accused of abusing a person who was helpless due to age. That's the accusation. It is about the couple's eight-year-old son.

– The only thing I can say is that it was a form of mental, not physical, abuse – says Bartosz Kilian from the press team of the District Prosecutor's Office in Sosnowiec.

In the video, from which the case that outraged public opinion beganyou can see the father strangling the child, who screams, calls for the mother, then cries and whimpers in her arms.

– Was it psychological abuse? – I ask the prosecutor.

– The child's report on the nature of this event was taken into account, hence this and no other accusation – replies Kilian.

Psychological abuse, as experts emphasize, is no less burdensome for the person experiencing violence than physical abuse. According to investigators, the boy from Dąbrowa had been experiencing this violence since an unspecified date in 2019. That's when the family allegedly started posting shocking videos on TikTok.

The prosecutor's office does not reveal whether the parents plead guilty to the charges.

The indictment was sent to the District Court in Dąbrowa Górnicza on February 27, 2024, one year after the case was disclosed. As we learned from Kilian, the case has not started yet.

After the charges were brought against his parents in March 2023, the boy was placed in a foster family by court decision. Where is he now?

– On March 27, 2024, the court decided that until the final conclusion of the proceedings, the child would remain under the care of its parents. On April 24, he limited the defendants' parental authority by subjecting them to constant supervision by a probation officer, says Kilian.

As the prosecutor emphasizes, the probation officer's supervision is “ongoing and strict.” The curator should visit the family and also talk to the boy.

We also asked the Municipal Social Welfare Center in Dąbrowa Górnicza whether they are interested in the family in connection with the accusation of child abuse, whether they are in contact with its neighbors and the boy's school.

READ ALSO: The father was smothering the child, the mother did not react. They were charged with abuse

– We are interested in every family about which we receive information that is struggling with problems that fall within our competence – replied Jolanta Polit, deputy director of MOPS in Dąbrowa.

However, she refused to provide information about this family, citing Article 100, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Social Assistance Act.

– Adults are separated from people suspected of violence. The perpetrators are given a restraining order a person experiencing violence, an order to leave the apartment. And here, the court returns the child to parents accused of violence while the case is pending. Not only can the child still be harmed, but the parents can influence his or her testimony, says Paweł Maczyński, chairman of the Polish Federation of Social Workers and Social Welfare.

– What reasons do we have to think that there is no longer violence in this house? Have the parents undergone psychological therapy, made mental changes, and do they no longer pose a threat to the child's health and life? If there is no doubt about this, if the court is calm about it, why did it give the parents supervision by a probation officer? – asks Maczyński. – The superintendent should notify the school, the municipal social welfare center, a family clinic and the police about this situation. All institutions that have this family in their sights should now look at this child carefully and exchange information on an ongoing basis to see the child in the widest possible context. Psychological violence is difficult to identify, and each of these institutions sees the child in a different environment. Small observations can only be disturbing when we see them in their entirety.

We asked the District Court in Dąbrowa Górnicza whether the date of the hearing had already been set, why the child returned to the parents accused of violence and what institutions were notified about it. As of the time of publication of this article, we have not received a response.

– The case in question is known to the Ombudsman for Children. The Ombudsman for Children took action in this case in accordance with her statutory competences. Respecting the well-being of children and protecting their privacy, BRPD does not provide detailed information on individual cases – we read in the response of the press office of the Ombudsman for Children.

In February 2023, a video of a man strangling a child on a couch in an apartment circulated on social media. The boy screams and calls for his mother, who is standing nearby. Then the mother holds her son, who is crying, wheezing, as if gasping for breath.

The situation was broadcast live on the TikTok platform. Internet users donated the recording to the Municipal Social Welfare Center in Dąbrowa.

– The first report regarding this family was received on February 16, 2023. The video attached to the report contained content that demoralized a minor. None of the social workers recognized this family in the video. We handed this recording over to the police, we didn't get any feedback – she said in the “Uwagi!” report. TVN Jolanta Polit from MOPS in Dąbrowa Górnicza.

According to the program's journalists, the police also did not take any action earlier, and found only demoralization in the recording from February 2023.

The parents were arrested on March 17, 2023. They were charged with child abuse. The police searched their apartment. they secured all their computer equipment, smartphones and other data carriers. – The contents of all media were to be carefully analyzed. Investigators were to check whether there were any other recordings containing acts of violence against the child.

In other videos, the father called his son a bastard and threatened to beat him with a belt. Internet users pointed out that the child sits in front of the computer all the time and the father drinks alcohol.

The boy's grandmother in a conversation with a journalist from “Uwagi!” TVN said that the coverage of the family's life on TikTok had been going on for four years, that it was a way to make money and that it was not violence, just jokes.

After the case was revealed in the media, the father started joking about the services on TikTok. He walked around the apartment and asked where the police and MOPS were, looking into the fridge, the washing machine, and the toilet.

If you are experiencing emotional problems and would like advice or support, here you will find a list of organizations offering professional help. In a situation of immediate threat to life, call 997 or 112.