A 23-year-old man has beaten his grandmother to death because she asked him for a glass of water in the middle of the night. The man is said to have been suffering from serious mental illness and had been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility issues in the past.
According to local media, the murder took place around 4 o’ clock on Monday morning, when the 83-year-old woman asked her grandson for a glass of water. The man went to the kitchen and then returned to the couch where the granny was and beat her to death in an outrage.
He beat the woman repeatedly on the head initially with punches and then also with a metal object.
Relatives of the family but also residents of Chrysochori village by Kavala, Northern Greece, told media that “arguments between the two were often and loud” and that the grandmother was beaten by her grandson also in the past.
The perpetrator”s father and victim’s son told newsit.gr that on the night of the murder, he heard them arguing and that his son was asking the elderly woman to go to the bank and withdraw 1,500 euros she had in deposit.
“They were constantly arguing over money,” the father said adding that his son had been hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic in the past and that he had also beaten him.
According to local media, the father has been suffering from mental health issues as well, while there is another child, an underage girl, who had been removed form the house and has been living in a facility.
The mother has left the family years ago.
The grandmother was supporting the family with her pension and was also taking care of them in terms of cooking, cleaning and other household duties.
The perpetrator had reportedly called a funeral service and said that his grandmother had died after a fall in the home. The caretaker informed the police and the coroner found extensive injuries on the victim’s body.
He was arrested by police and within hours he confessed to the crime claiming “a trivial reason.”
Next to the history of the mental illness, the perpetrator had been also arrested several times by police for drug-related and other offenses.
The assault was “expected. We knew things would not end well” local authorities told state broadcaster ERT. on Tuesday morning.
“There was trouble every so often that demanded a response from the police, and we sent people over from the Help at Home social program a few times, but they were turned away, both by the deceased and by the perpetrator,” said Dimosthenis Dalkaranis, the president of Chrysochori community.
Dalkaranis added that social services had removed the 23-year-old from the house twice in the past couple of years and took him to a psychiatric facility, but he was released shortly after on both occasions and was allowed to go back home.”
The community president said that they had advised the victim to move out of the house.
The perpetrator’s lawyer criticized the “sound silence” of those in charge of psychiatry saying that his client has a confirmed mental problem and he should have been living in a facility years ago. “There have been some 40 denouncements by the neighbors” against the young man, the lawyer added.
Mental health issues are still a taboo in Greece of 2022, and often also the state care leaves a lot to be desired as after hospitalization patients are left alone and in the care of the families who have no idea how to deal with such issues.
