A 78-year-old woman from Kaštel Stari was sentenced to a 200-euro fine by a non-final decision because on February 2, 2022, she hit her husband in the back with a crutch while he was cleaning the stairs of the family home, shouting and verbally attacking him, which caused fear in the victim.
The daughter-in-law, the wife of the defendant's brother, was cleaning the stairs in the family home in Kaštel Stari around noon that winter day. She was bent over while working when the then 74-year-old daughter-in-law, who walked with the help of two crutches due to an amputated leg, came out of the apartment. She shouted at the woman, "What are you cleaning, it's yours," and then, holding on with one crutch, she lifted the other and hit her on the back.
The victim said in her statement to the court that she was in shock and that she was afraid and that she is still afraid now, and she also stated that she feels anxious and violated her dignity. She pointed out that this behavior has been going on since the defendant returned from Slovenia in 2015 and that she is sorry that everything is like this because she should soon have a great-grandchild and that she should now both grieve and rejoice.
The Kaštela Police Station filed an indictment shortly after the incident, and the first-instance court in Kaštel Sućurac already issued a guilty verdict in May 2022. However, the High Misdemeanor Court accepted the defense's appeal and ordered a new trial and a re-examination of all the circumstances of the incident at the end of 2022.
At the retrial in November 2025, the defendant did not appear, but submitted a written defense through her defense attorney. In it, she claimed that her daughter-in-law was not at the address where the incident occurred that day and that the entire incident was fabricated. She stated that she had actually called the police that day because her brother had attacked her. He burst into her apartment, spat on her, hit her under the eye, and insulted her, accusing her of "robbing her father, mother, and him" and that "her son was made into a Serb." She pointed out that she had several court property-related legal proceedings with her brother and daughter-in-law, both completed and ongoing.
The defense specifically emphasized the defendant's disability, and the defense attorney proposed a forensic medical examination. The court rejected that proposal as completely unnecessary and aimed at delaying the proceedings.
The verdict is not yet final.
Photo: Canva/creative
