The nightmare she lived through in recent years at the hands of her abusive ex-husband was described by the 40-year-old woman who was brutally abused outside Apokorona Town Hall in Vryses, Crete and a few meters from the local Police Station, in front of his eyes of her 5-year-old child.

Speaking to Creta24 he said that “now I fear for my life. I live alone with the child and after the incident I fear for me and my child. He is dangerous. He drinks, is an alcoholic, does other drugs and is also abusive. For four years now I’ve been pulling a gutter by myself,” she says with a trembling voice.

The 40-year-old municipal employee on the day of the incident, she was at work with her child when her ex-husband, who works at the same place, appeared and demanded to take that child to school.

Then the man began to pull the child from his mother’s arms, as a result of which the little boy found himself on the road, in front of the wheels of a car, with the driver stopping – fortunately – in time. Then the man began to viciously beat his ex-wife.

Her testimony

“I was taking my child to school and because the nursery school doors opened at 08:15, I took the child at 8:00 and waited for a few minutes to pass and went back to work until the school opened. As I was walking to work with my child, the gentleman was walking up the stairs from the downstairs office, as he works there. The child shouted “Daddy-Daddy”, he wanted to take him to school by force. He pulled him from my arms inside. A gentleman saw the whole episode and – fortunately for the child – stopped his car in time because as the child left his father’s hand, he fell on the wheel of the car, limped and fell down. At that moment he started punching me in the face, kicking me and pulling my arm, for which the diagnosis was made today by the medical examiner”, says the 40-year-old.

They were saved from his hands by the municipal employees, who were also at work, who immediately called the Police and rushed to help the woman. However, the perpetrator managed to escape. A patrol car arrived at the scene and took the 40-year-old to the Domestic Violence Office, where she testified for 2.5 hours. The woman then went to the Vamos Health Center, where she was examined by doctors.

“If I didn’t have my colleagues I don’t know what the result would have been. Luckily they all came out to help me. They called the police, but the gentleman drove away with his car because he was apparently afraid of the police,” said the municipal employee.

In fact, a day before the domestic violence episode, the 40-year-old had filed a lawsuit against her ex-husband.

“A day before the incident I had gone to my lawyer, because I had made recommendations to him not to put the child in the front seat and put him in the front seat without a belt. I have evidence, I have a photo, I have filed a lawsuit. He has not put the alimony. The day before I filed the lawsuit and the next day the incident happened.”

With strength of soul and with the scars from her brutal beating still visible, the 40-year-old confessed to Creta24 incidents of abuse she experienced in the past at the hands of her ex-husband.

“He has hit me before and when I was pregnant he hit me in the stomach. And I’ve been kicked in the fireplace and he almost put me in. He burned my child’s clothes because my relatives had taken them,” she says, adding, “He was very abusive until one morning five months after our child was born, I took my child and got up and left.”

“Since then we made a plan, they gave him co-custody, a decision on the interim measures was issued. Another time I went home because I had been put in the wolf’s mouth, that I should take the child to his father’s house. One day he had been drinking and I took the child to him and he told me why I took the child to him at this time. While I always took the child after consultation between us. And there he attacked me again, almost killing me. The first thing I did was to take my child and get up to leave in the car.”

“The police are aware because we go almost all the time for lawsuits,” added the 40-year-old.

Her aunt mentioned the torture the 40-year-old woman was going through. What he says is shocking.

“From the day we met him, he was very abusive. He was drinking and hitting her. He was jealous of her. She got pregnant and he was beating her in the stomach, he wouldn’t leave her alone. The result, when the child was born, because of the much liquor he drank, he went to throw it in the fireplace, to burn it. He also burned the child’s clothes,” he says.

The aunt of the municipal employee, asks the Greek Justice not to release the perpetrator and to give custody of the child to his mother.

The girl was forced and ran away with a 5-month-old child. From that day, wherever he meets her he hits her and curses her. This man is unfit to be a father. If justice lets him go, be sure that within 5-10 days, we will have another femicide. I want to hope that justice will do its duty, its duty. He cannot be released. I believe he should be tried. We ask the Greek justice system to take custody of the child.”

The perpetrator was given a deadline to apologize on Monday

The perpetrator was brought before the Prosecutor on Saturday morning, where he requested and received a deadline to apologize on the morning of Monday, September 16.

The 40-year-old’s lawyer stated that the man tried with various inaccuracies to mislead the court, but he did not succeed.

“He got a deadline for Monday morning, of course there is the lawyers’ strike, but I intend to appear and I will appear,” said Ms. Pavlantonea.

“The state now protects every person, and especially women, from this domestic violence that existed in previous years and did not speak about it. Now the law protects them, prosecutes and punishes the perpetrators of these crimes in an exemplary manner and without suspension. I think that in this case too, justice will be served and this woman will be able to live free”, concluded the 40-year-old’s lawyer.