The girl’s colleagues alerted social services to a possible case of abortion at home. Subsequent investigations brought the horror to light: the 53-year-old allegedly raped at least one of his daughters and had an incestuous relationship with the arrested 20-year-old.
A 54-year-old man and his 20-year-old daughter were arrested by police in Poland with the very heavy accusation of incest and infanticide. The terrible story comes from Czerniki, a small village in northern Poland, about 50 km from Gdansk, where between last Friday and Saturday the police discovered the bodies of three newborns buried in the basement of the family home. The remains of the newborns were wrapped in black plastic bags and then buried in small, makeshift graves in the ground.
The terrible story came to light when the girl’s colleagues notified social services of a possible case of illegal abortion, a very serious crime in a country where abortion is greatly hindered. In fact, before the summer, the young woman had put on weight with a noticeable belly, even though she had always denied the pregnancy, but upon returning from vacation she was unrecognizable, thin and with obvious difficulties. Someone began to suspect and the report was made.
The police, who intervened in the young woman’s house, however, did not expect to find a real cemetery of newborns with at least three bodies buried in a state of decomposition. The remains of the first two children were found on Friday, a third on Saturday but the search is still underway because it is suspected there may be others.
Subsequent investigations brought the horror to light: the 53-year-old allegedly raped at least one of his daughters and would have had an incestuous relationship with the other, according to the investigators, in a consensual manner. Both were arrested.
As explained by the prosecutor of the Gdansk District Attorney’s Office, the young woman was accused of three counts, two of murder of children and one of incestuous relationship with her father. The latter, however, is accused of the murders of the three children, of incest and sexual violence against the other daughter.
According to the prosecution, two of the children found dead were those arrested while the third belonged to the other daughter of the 54-year-old rape victim, who no longer lives with them and who reported her father.
According to testimonies collected by local media, the man had lost his wife 15 years ago and since then had been left alone with his 12 children. In time the older ones would go away and in recent years he had been left alone with his two daughters.
Residents of the area say that father and daughter had lived as a couple for some time and that he had total control over her. “They lived like a couple. She called him by name. They walked hand in hand with her and a few months ago she shaved her head so the other boys wouldn’t look at her” they revealed.
Autopsies on the children found so far have not given investigators a definitive answer to the question of what caused their deaths. For now there are only hypotheses and to determine with certainty the cause of death of the newborns, further medical-legal tests will be necessary.
