Parents admit beating child
A couple from Thessaloniki, who allegedly beat their 7-year-old son so violently that the attack left the boy brain dead, conceded in court yesterday that they had struck the boy but insisted that it was not a severe beating. The child’s parents, both Albanian nationals who have not been named, were remanded in custody after appearing before a magistrate. «The couple accept that they struck the 7-year-old but deny causing him serious head injuries and have asked for clarification of the forensic report so it can be established where and when the blows were delivered,» said the couple’s lawyer, Eleni Balaska, after the hearing. Meanwhile, doctors at the city’s Ippocrateio Hospital confirmed yesterday that the boy was being kept alive by a life-support machine as he had suffered irreversible brain damage. The hospital’s director, Panayiotis Apostolou, rejected rumors that the machine would be switched off before the boy dies.
