The inquest into the death of 14-year-old Stylianos Konstantinou continued today with testimony from his former kindergarten teacher, described as particularly significant evidence.
Konstantina Papachristodoulou, the fifth witness to testify in the case, said she taught Stylianos in 2008-09, when he was four years old. She said her testimony was limited to that period.
According to the witness, Stylianos was a neglected child who came to school in the same clothes, often dirty, telling her he went to the farm and fields daily to help his father.
She said Stylianos had unusual physical strength for his age and would often lose control, hitting classmates. She described one occasion when he tried to jump over the school fence to escape, among other instances of risky behaviour, and said that when calm, he showed kindness and helped younger children.
The witness said Stylianos told her his father would shout that he would beat the children with a belt, threaten them with a hunting gun, or have them put in prison. According to the witness, Stylianos said his father beat his mother without her reacting, though he never said anything negative about his mother.
The witness also described an occasion when Stylianos’s mother arrived at school with a black eye. She said that when she asked the mother what had happened, the mother told her to ask Stylianos. According to the witness, Stylianos said his father had assaulted his mother the previous day after she was late getting to the farm, leaving her with the injury.
The witness said the mother told her she had filed several complaints against her husband but later withdrew them for reasons that were not made clear, despite the witness’s encouragement to pursue them. She added that the mother was also in a difficult financial position, with her husband leaving her without money, and that she had often had to ask relatives for financial help.
The witness said that when she asked Stylianos why he was violent towards classmates and teachers, he told her it was because his father beat him. She described him as a very lively, restless child whose presence in the classroom was intense.
The court has scheduled cross-examination of the witness for tomorrow at 11am.
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