Roula Pispirigou, a 34-year-old Greek girl accused of killing her three daughters over three years, went on trial on Monday in Athens.
She is being held in a high-security jail after the case sparked widespread outrage in Greece.
Pispirigou is being tried for the “attempted premeditated homicide” and “premeditated homicide” of her eldest daughter however has denied all fees.
She stands accused of poisoning nine-year-old Georgina in January 2022 by administering ketamine, an anesthetic.
At the time of her loss of life, Georgina was within the hospital the place she had been for a number of stays since first struggling convulsions in April 2021 which left her quadriplegic.
Pispirigou was arrested in March 2022 and has maintained her innocence since.
Following her arrest, authorities started investigating the deaths of her two different daughters – Malena, aged three when she died in 2019, and Iris, six months outdated when she died in 2021.
Forensic examinations revealed that each ladies died of asphyxiation and though that investigation is ongoing, in August Pispirigou was charged with these deaths as properly.
Pispirigou arrived in courtroom on Monday handcuffed, surrounded by police in balaclavas, wearing black and searching haggard.
The choose rejected the request by her lawyer for all three circumstances to be merged however agreed to adjourn the trial till Wednesday after Pispirigou seems earlier than a choose investigating the circumstances of the 2 youthful ladies.
‘Modern-day Medea’
Greek media have nicknamed Pispirigou, a nurse by coaching, as a “modern-day Medea,” a determine in Greek mythology who murders her sons after their father leaves her for an additional girl.
The alleged triple infanticide has obtained widespread media consideration in Greece, the place such crimes are comparatively uncommon.
In April 2022, the federal government urged calm within the face of requires Pispirigou to be killed.
When she appeared in courtroom shortly after her arrest, she wore a bullet-proof vest and riot police had been deployed to manage a crowd shouting: “Murderess, confess your crime.”
One particular person informed Greek tv she thought Pispirigou must be hanged, and the entrance of her home in Patras was daubed with the phrases “Death to child killers.”
“People can’t forgive the fact that she allegedly killed not one but three children and at different times,” mentioned Effi Lambropoulou, lecturer in criminology on the Athens Panteion University.
Media “focus above all on the emotions of viewers,” Lambropoulou mentioned.
“This information is then exaggerated on social networks, where there is no control whatsoever.”
