Yesterday, the single-member Criminal Court of Larissa imposed an 8-month prison sentence (with a three-year suspension) on a coach of a children’s football team, as he was found guilty of negligent bodily harm, when a 15-year-old goalkeeper was struck by lightning, as a storm broke out while he was playing football with his teammates.

It was shortly after 6 pm on June 13, 2018 and at the Football Academy field outside Larissa, when the 15-year-old then 3rd High School student, along with other children – teammates, participated in the last training of the year, as a goalkeeper in his football team . When a storm broke out and while the young players were told – according to what was said in court – by their coach to leave the field, a lightning “caught” the 15-year-old under the goalposts, turning the beloved football into drama, with his family of a child to experience her own “Golgotha”.

The doctors of GNL managed to revive the 15-year-old that afternoon, however, five years later he remains bedridden today, with no signs of improvement and “in a waking coma”, as testified by the 56-year-old builder and father of the goalkeeper.

An accident that highlighted the dimension of security measures and especially lightning protection in private and public sports facilities, an aspect that was mentioned in yesterday’s court.

As reported by onlarissa.gr citing Eleftheria newspaper, in the context of the trial, the father of the 15-year-old referred to the events of that afternoon as they were conveyed to him, to refer to the situation that his son is in today, five years later. Saying that “we feed him with a syringe, he does not communicate, he is in a coma, today he is 20 years old in a state of waking coma”, he also noted the unbearable financial cost of meeting his child’s health needs.

A neighbor – an eyewitness testified, among other things, that “the children were playing in the rain and lightning was falling from afar” and that he saw the lightning strike the field “and splash it down”.

Also yesterday, teammates testified, among others, while in his apology the coach stated that he was “shocked” by the event.

To describe the events of the “last practice of the year” noting that when the “drizzle started, I told you guys please let’s go. Some kids said not to leave yet, some stayed but most of the kids left the field when I heard the “bang” and saw the kid down. I told the others to call the EMS and I went to the child.”

“There were no severe weather phenomena, there was no lightning,” the coach explained, adding that “as a human being, if I had to do something to prevent what happened, I would have done it, it was an unforeseen event.”

The district attorney proposed the defendant’s guilt, with the Court adopting the proposal and finding the coach guilty of negligent bodily harm caused by an omission by an obligee, imposed an 8-month prison sentence, with a three-year suspension.