By Stefanos Evripidou
A 33-year-old man who confessed to killing his father with a kitchen knife last March has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Nicosia Assizes Court.
Charalambos Pavlou, the youngest of eight children, attacked his father Anthimos while he was lying on his bed at home on the Strovolos refugee estate on March 2.
Pavlou later told police that he was angry with his 67-year-old father for not letting his mother go to a wedding.
During the assault the knife broke and Pavlou grabbed another one from the kitchen. He continued to strike out at his father until neighbours were able to disarm him.
In passing sentence, the Court took into account two psychological assessment reports indicating that Pavlou suffered from paranoia and other psychiatric illnesses.
Pavlou maintained that mobile phones were responsible for his actions, claiming that they spoke to him sent him messages, urging him to commit the crime.
The bench of three judges highlighted the difficulty faced by the courts in passing sentence on offenders with psychological problems. Cyprus does not offer psychiatric services for convicts, nor does it have a proper aftercare system with probation officers to guide convicts back into society after their release.
The court pointed out that the Health Ministry was currently working on new legislation to set up an Psychiatric Care Centre for inmates of the Central Prisons in Nicosia.
The most appropriate measures in such cases would be for the prisoner to have specialised psychiatric care and support from the prison services while he or she is incarcerated, the court said.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
