Bobby stepfather 'mistreated child'
The former partner of Bobby’s stepfather told Eksjö district court that he was a violent man who mistreated her and her child. The woman was testifying for Bobby’s mother, who is being tried along with the boy’s 39-year-old stepfather for the murder earlier this year of the 10-year-old boy.
The woman said she and her four-year-old son lived with the man accused of murdering Bobby for several months and suffered emotionally during her time with him, reported Dagens Nyheter.
“I couldn’t think clearly,” said the woman in court Monday. “I was so scared and depressed I couldn’t even stand up for my own child. I now realize that I am partially to blame for the emotional abuse he inflicted on my son.”
The woman said the man once pushed her son’s face into his dinner plate.
“He didn’t want my son to eat at the same time as us,” she said. “Either the boy would eat before us or after us. And a few times when my son didn’t like the food, he would push his face into the plate,” she said.
The lawyer for Bobby’s mother in the murder trial, Anders Berggren, said Monday’s witness supported his client testimony.
“The similarities are big between both cases,” Berggren said. “The stepfather obviously doesn’t have the nourishing and good relationship to children that he himself claims. And the woman who testified today showed as eloquently as my client how hard it can be to break up”
The stepfather’s lawyer, Per Oeme, still doubted the 40-year-old woman’s testimony. He pointed out that she had never before mentioned her son being forced outside or having his face pushed down into food.
Oeme implied Monday’s witness was influenced by the media reports surrounding Bobby’s case, reported Dagens Nyheter.
Bobby’s stepfather did not agree with the witness’s stories, calling her testimony “lies.”
The trial in southern Sweden is in its third week and is regarding the suspicious death of 10-year-old Bobby. The boy’s mother and stepfather are suspected of dragging and a naked Bobby out into the snow in January, beating him. The couple then allegedly took the boy back inside, taped and gagged him before putting him to bed.
Final arguments in the case begin on Wednesday.
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The woman said she and her four-year-old son lived with the man accused of murdering Bobby for several months and suffered emotionally during her time with him, reported Dagens Nyheter.
“I couldn’t think clearly,” said the woman in court Monday. “I was so scared and depressed I couldn’t even stand up for my own child. I now realize that I am partially to blame for the emotional abuse he inflicted on my son.”
The woman said the man once pushed her son’s face into his dinner plate.
“He didn’t want my son to eat at the same time as us,” she said. “Either the boy would eat before us or after us. And a few times when my son didn’t like the food, he would push his face into the plate,” she said.
The lawyer for Bobby’s mother in the murder trial, Anders Berggren, said Monday’s witness supported his client testimony.
“The similarities are big between both cases,” Berggren said. “The stepfather obviously doesn’t have the nourishing and good relationship to children that he himself claims. And the woman who testified today showed as eloquently as my client how hard it can be to break up”
The stepfather’s lawyer, Per Oeme, still doubted the 40-year-old woman’s testimony. He pointed out that she had never before mentioned her son being forced outside or having his face pushed down into food.
Oeme implied Monday’s witness was influenced by the media reports surrounding Bobby’s case, reported Dagens Nyheter.
Bobby’s stepfather did not agree with the witness’s stories, calling her testimony “lies.”
The trial in southern Sweden is in its third week and is regarding the suspicious death of 10-year-old Bobby. The boy’s mother and stepfather are suspected of dragging and a naked Bobby out into the snow in January, beating him. The couple then allegedly took the boy back inside, taped and gagged him before putting him to bed.
Final arguments in the case begin on Wednesday.
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