“Georgina despite what her parents said strongly experienced the loss of Malena” testified at her trial Roulas Pispirigou the psychologist Despina Savvoglou, who was instructed by the investigator handling the case to interpret the child’s drawings.

the psychologist, specialist in children and adolescents testified to the perception that she formed both about Georgina’s feelings as expressed by her paintings after the loss mainly of Malena, but also of Iris, as well as for elements of the personality of the two parents with whom he interviewed.

The forensic expert said that the family essentially did not experience bereavement from the loss of the two children, which seems to have affected their first-born daughter as well. As the witness reported for Georgina: “There was no processing of the deaths. There was no room to talk about it. Was he scared? Was he stressed? “He didn’t report anything,” both parents said. Of course, this was completely connected to the absence of grief processing by the parents themselves.”

The psychologist, however, described a completely different image of Georgina that the kindergarten teacher conveyed to her for the time after Malena’s loss. “She described to me a child who was experiencing the loss of her sister intensely, asking the teacher to hold her hand, telling her about her sister, looking for her in the afternoon on the phones. Why should a child look for a mother figure, when there is mom and dad at home… He took her to find relief in the feelings he had” said the psychologist and continued:

“It was conveyed to me by the headmaster that Georgina felt the need to keep him company because ‘he was on his own at breaks’… when the kids want to go out and play. This is called projection. She herself felt lonely and thought that this is how her manager would feel and she wanted to keep him company” noted features.

“The witness said that Georgina’s parents told her that they took the child to the funeral home to “say goodbye” to her sisters.characterizing this process “tough even for an adult.”

Based on a painting by Georgina where Malena is depicted as a little angel, Mrs. Savvoglou said that while talking to Roula Pispirigou, the defendant told her that she had done the painting for her sake, for Mother’s Day “while there was only a month of mourning,” the psychologist emphasized. As the witness said, Manos Daskalakis told her that a psychologist had advised Roula Pispirigou to tell the child that Malena and Irida became little angels to protect her. “This struck me as advice from a colleague. There is a role reversal here. Parents are the shield, not a dead child… When a child draws her family and draws her little sister who was not alive, it’s a reasonable thought to say that she was trying to find a way to express her grief.” .

Chairman: You said grieving process, what is it?

Witness: Not all processes are labels that we will stick them on everyone. But when there are children… Both parents conveyed the way the child said goodbye to her sisters. This was especially bad. She visited her sisters at the funeral homes. That would be tough for an adult too! From the two parents what was described was essentially the attempt to replace what was lost and not to experience it. But the first process of beginning mourning is to experience it. If the parents go directly to replacement, we don’t even enter the entrance of the bereavement process.

Chairman: How did the defendant describe her daily life with Georgina?

Witness: It struck me that there was no room for each individual child. They were trying to combine the needs for everything while there was an age difference. I was impressed by the children’s program. The father was quite absent because he was working and seemed to have blind trust in his wife and had entrusted her with the daily custody of the children. The children’s schedule was very demanding. School in the morning, a lunch break and then activities in a creative work center until 8 in the evening. At such young ages the child has little time to stand. He told me he’d rather they go somewhere where they learn things than be on a tablet. I explained to her that it is up to us what we will give the children at home. I was also impressed by her phrase “I want my children to be little soldiers, to have boundaries”. But the limit must be set based on the needs of the children, not just the parents.

Chairman: How did she describe her relationship with Georgina to you?

Witness: She described her to me as father’s favorite child, which she liked. But all the descriptions were not autonomous, they were for the whole family. All the questions came down to her or her relationship with her husband.

According to the psychologist, the 34-year-old was unable to concentrate on her babies because of personal issues with Manos Daskalakis. “…It was hard for her to focus on her babies because she was focused on her husband and his ex-girlfriend. She stated that she was upset and stopped breastfeeding because her husband was bothered by some of his former relationships, which she despised.”

The witness testified that in the meeting they had in prison, Pispirigou herself referred to her grandparents and the strangulation of her grandmother by her grandfather. “We are interested in the way of narration because it also captures his own way of thinking. He described a strangulation in a rather peculiar way. He associated him with the tender feelings of the grandfather towards the grandmother and his anxiety that she will leave him. The feeling of abandonment is generally present in her words. Describe the drowning in tender words. After her story she finally forgave him because that’s how it was passed down to her by her grandparents. She kept out a piece of the outside reality: Her father was left motherless and without paternal care after his father went to prison. This mode of operation also affected the way she raised her children,” she said.

Regarding the meetings with the accused in prison, the witness emphasized that what she got was a feeling of injustice that had overwhelmed Pispirigou. “She spoke to me about the injustice that was overwhelming her because she was unjustly in prison. He also told me that he didn’t get to mourn Iris and Georgina. She told me that she feels alone, that she is suffocating from the truth. She referred to journalists and shows that promote her case and she herself is locked up and cannot defend herself and her children.”

Chairman: Have you heard of Munchausen syndrome by proxy?

Witness: Yes. The parent uses the child and creates a symptom for him, false and fabricated to get hospital treatment. The parent wants care himself and cannot receive it.

Dimitris Georgakopoulos (Defense Counsel): Do you think it’s a diagnosable disorder in a person who knows they’re being investigated for this? Can the accused be examined at this stage on this matter?

Witness: Through these processes there is an influence. It certainly makes it very difficult to make such a diagnosis in retrospect because it is also a construction. It can be done with a broader diagnosis, of a different type perhaps.

Dimitris Georgakopoulos: Had Georgina expressed any fear that something was coming and communicating with the paintings? Why was that what the interrogator was asking.

Witness: Fear is part of grieving. She was preoccupied with the death of her brothers. We also know that the parents thought it was not her concern.

Dimitris Georgakopoulos: Has it been recorded that the child was afraid of death?

Witness: Maybe, but I can’t say for sure. She put herself very close to her sisters. When there is a sudden death of a sibling at a young age, children tend to put themselves in the place of the lost child. But we are discussing it as a hypothesis because it cannot be established with certainty in Georgina.

Prosecutor: From the sessions with the parents, did you understand if they were aware of their role?

Witness: I did not feel that there was a dialectic about the needs of their children

Prosecutor: Did the accused ever realize the role of mother?

Witness: I will say yes, but in a way of her own. She was interested in the couple and their relationship. Iris’s pregnancy was planned as a second chance at their marriage.

Prosecutor: Did he feel like mourning?

Witness: She has her own way and mechanisms of thinking and feeling things about what is happening. They are mechanisms that do not facilitate her role as a mother so that she can take care of the children in a good way so that they are covered. Some mental processes have not made it easier. I believe that my suggestion for further examination by experts was not accidental. And she has to take care of herself.

Prosecutor: What to take care of?

Witness: We all need care in difficult situations.

Nurse Nikos Gotsis also testified in court, who said that the accused, one day before Georgina’s death on January 29, 2022, had asked him if there were cameras at “Aglaia Kyriakou”.

“On 28/1 in the morning, I entered the ward and took pressure on Georgina. She was normal for age. I received a question from the mother if the clinic has cameras. It seemed strange to me, in the clinics there are no cameras, there is personal data. That’s it. I then left the ward. The next day I didn’t have a shift,” said the witness.

Chairman: Why would it be strange for the mother to ask about the cameras?

Witness: It’s a public hospital why would it ask me if there are cameras.

Chairman: Was it obvious to you that they don’t exist?

Witness: Yes.

Defense: Had it become known that there had been an incident of theft? Had there been a ruckus?

Witness: It was simply reported and the necessary actions taken.