A new prosecution witness has testified about the relationship between the late Stylianos Konstantinou and his parents, revealing new details, including his reported statements to teachers that he would kill his father when he grew up if his father made his mother cry again.
Ch.K.A., who was Stylianos’s special education teacher in his first year of primary school, testified before the court today. She first came into contact with the child when he was in pre-primary school.
She said she was responsible for another child at the time, but noticed Stylianos’s behaviour and got in touch with his teacher. Together, they decided to refer his case for further assessment.
‘I’ll slaughter him like he slaughters the chickens’
One part of the witness’s testimony stood out: her account of what Stylianos used to say while in the first year of primary school. She said the child repeatedly told his teachers two specific phrases: “I’ll slaughter my dad like he slaughters the chickens” and “I’ll kill him when I grow up if he makes my mum cry again.”
The witness said the child said these things more often on Mondays, after the weekend. In her assessment, something Stylianos saw or experienced over the weekend was affecting him negatively.
She also told the court about the gestures Stylianos made as he said these things. He would pull his head back with his left hand, she said, then use his right hand to make a motion from left to right across her throat, as if he were holding a knife.
When Ch.K.A. tried to find out more about why Stylianos was saying these things, he would reportedly stop the conversation. “It was as if he’d been coached not to talk,” the witness explained.
Classmates rejected Stylianos
According to the witness, Stylianos’s poor hygiene meant other children didn’t want to sit or play with him, which left him isolated.
She recalled specific instances when other children told her they didn’t want to play with him because he “smells,” while Stylianos stood there and felt the rejection firsthand.
She added that teachers tried to encourage the other children to play with him, reminding them he was their friend and classmate, but they kept refusing and pushing him aside.
Hours in the yard with a baby in the car
Under questioning from the prosecution, the witness also spoke about conversations she had that year with Stylianos’s mother, who reportedly asked her about his younger sister, then a year and a half old.
The witness said the mother had asked her why the baby still hadn’t managed to walk. From their conversation, she understood that the baby was spending many hours a day in a car at the farm, seated in a small chair, while her mother worked.
She told the mother that the baby hadn’t walked yet because no one was holding her hand or giving her the attention she needed to take her first steps.
