A Nicosia mother who said her son had been beating her for three years, yesterday broke down in court when the judge refused to have him committed
“He’s been beating me every day for three years. I want him locked up in a psychiatric hospital…. I want him out of my house…,” sobbed the helpless mother-of-four.
Agni Petrou said her 19-year-old son beat both her and his two brothers aged 21 and 17 who had special needs.
But Nicosia Judge Yiota Kyriakides explained that she could not have someone committed simply because he was violent.
“He displays aggressive behaviour but shows no indication of psychiatric problems. In light of this I cannot have him committed to a psychiatric hospital,” the judge said.
At her wits end Petrou said she had been advised to come to court by police.
“I went to the police to file a complaint and they said to come to court,” she said.
Kyriakides explained that if Petrou wanted to apply for a court order to have her son removed from her home then she would have to file a different application.
“Someone who is violent does not mean they are psychiatrically ill. You should report them to the police and apply for a court order to remove him from the home… But I cannot have him committed,” the judge reiterated.
In floods of tears Petrou pointed to her 21-year-old son sitting slumped in a chair and beseeched the judge.
“Tell me what I’m supposed to do? What if he kills me first? Then who is going to look after my special needs children? The police told me to come to court.”
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail after the proceeding, Petrou said she was desperate to have her teenage boy removed from her home.
She said this time last year she’d been in court about her daughter, now 23, and her fiancι.
“They both used to hit me and I came here and applied to have them removed from my home, which the judge did,” she said.
Petrou said she simply wanted to live at home with her two special needs children. She said she had been divorced for 10 years and that ex-husband, who had fathered all four children, had also used to beat her.
“I don’t know why he [her son] hits me. You’ll have to ask him. One time the ambulance had to come and take me to hospital and I’ve got witnesses… He used to take drugs and then he went for treatment for his aggression but it’s done nothing… I don’t know if he’s still using,” she said.
Distraught the 48-year-old said she no longer knew what to do.
“What is going to happen to my kids if I die? He [son] won’t leave [the house]. He wants me out so that he can live there,” she said.
“No one is doing anything. Not the Social Welfare Services, not police, not the court. Where am I supposed to go to be heard,” she added.
“I want him to leave so that I can be a real person… Come to the house and see what he’s done. He’s broken doors, chairs and furniture. All day long he’s aggressive and I don’t know why.”
A lawyer finally approached Petrou and offered to take on her case to help with the right application. “I want my peace,” the distressed mother said leaving court.
