Three employees of a Romanian care center, accused of serious abuses against institutionalized children, escape charges after the court found that the acts have expired.
Instead, the judges oblige the three to pay each person they systematically beat moral damages of only 4,500 lei (less than 1,000 euros). Four victims were identified in the case.
The three women are employed as education instructors or medical assistants and were filmed while beating children, witnesses stating that this had been a practice for several years in the social center where children with disabilities were supposed to be cared for.
Steluţa Mariana Mihai, Violeta Stancu, and Paula Bănică from the "Sf. Andrew" Community Services Complex (Prahova County) were sent to trial in September 2022.
The Ploieşti Court found that the acts for which they were indicted, committed and proven in 2018, have expired.
We are talking about minors with special needs and children with disabilities placed in this center as a result of separation from their parents. They were systematically beaten and even had their food stolen.
Beatings were considered normal in the employees' mentality
"It emerged that both the accused (...) and other employees committed serious abuses against institutionalized minors - victims of verbal violence and physical aggression, managing to subdue them by making them 'fear them.'
At the same time, there were indications that among the staff, it was common practice to steal various goods intended for the consumption of institutionalized children (food products and clothing items)," as stated in the documents submitted to the court.
The cited source mentions that beatings were a widespread practice in this center, representing in the employees' mentality "normality, a way to assert themselves in front of the children, to constrain them to respect them, and to educate them by instilling a state of fear and submission."
Although some of the victims were harmless, "they were victims of repeated physical aggression acts, simply because they created discomfort through the specific behavior of the diagnosed mental disorders," the same documents state.
One of the witnesses in the case "reported that since 2009, when he started working at the center, he noticed that employees constantly exerted various forms of abuse on the beneficiaries, trying to justify the conduct of the staff by referring to the circumstance that minors with neurovegetative problems do not always react to normal verbal or non-verbal impulses, but react instead to some gestures that involve a certain violence, as they have been accustomed over time by the education provided by individuals employed as education instructors who did not have the qualifications and skills necessary to educate children with disabilities."
The man who reported the situation to the law enforcement authorities also reported it to the Prahova Child Protection Directorate.
A report following an internal audit shows that certain violations of duty were identified and disciplinary actions were taken against employees in the positions of center chief, specialized personnel coordinator, and administrator.
However, it was established that "there is no evidence to suggest that beneficiaries are assaulted by employees, that food intended for beneficiaries is consumed, and that goods are stolen from the center, and the commission does not have the necessary means and legal competence to verify the veracity of the allegations reported by the gentleman."