Lor have investigated for child abandonment. But on the father who was supposed to take his 14-month-old daughter to nursery school and instead forgot her in the car weighs a life sentence, for which he is solely responsible. His daughter is no more. To find the dead child, at the end of the day, on June 7, his mother. The woman had looked for the little one at the nursery, but the little girl had never made it to school. Let’s imagine her suspicion and her desperate rush towards her husband’s Red Megane, the sight of her little girl with her eyes closed, beyond the closed window. The autopsy assignment will be given today.
Child who died because “forgotten” by her father in the car
He is a 45-year-old carabiniere and the tragedy took place in the military citadel of Cecchignola, in the southern area of Rome. What happened is «a tragic accident in which a specific memory lapse», explains Giovanna Crespi, Secretary of the Italian Society of Forensic Psychiatry.
What is Forgotten Baby Syndrome?
It is spoken of as yet another tragedy of the so-called Forgotten baby syndrome: syndrome which refers to «specific episodes in which a parent, for short periods of time, forgets the presence of the child in a vehicle». And it is «often associated with factors such as distraction, disrupted routines, or stress overload and responsibility”.
One of the last cases in Italy dates back to 2019, when in Catania the father of a two-year-old boy left him in the car for five hours under the sun. Even in that case, the parent was taking his son to daycare and only remembered the little one left in the car when his wife called him in alarm. According to expert data, the “Forgotten Child Syndrome” has caused from 1998 to the present. in Italy, the death of 11 children.
The first case, casually still in Catania. An Sgs Thompson technician caused the death of his 20-month-old son, left in the car for seven hours in the sun, with a temperature of 40 degrees. The man in 2000 was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, suspended sentence, for manslaughter.
The responsibility of the father: is it a mental disorder?
Also in this case, Crespi explains, «the father’s responsibility in relation to his psychic conditions must be ascertained. Generally intra-family crimes are more easily linked to presence of a mental disorder. The experts will evaluate if and how the mental disorder may have influenced and if it is likely possible rule out fraud. The condemnation for the father is the event itself which will condition the rest of his life regardless of the juridical assessment”.
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