Stylianos Konstantinou was six when, according to his former teacher, he spoke about violence at home, regularly arrived at school hungry and showed signs of injury and neglect.
Giving evidence before Nicosia District Court in proceedings concerning his death, the teacher also alleged that his father later returned to the school with a hunting shotgun and threatened to “cut off her legs”.
Behaviour and alleged violence at home
The prosecution witness, identified by the initials E.S., taught Stylianos during his first year of primary school in the 2010-2011 academic year.
Reading from a statement she gave to one of the case’s criminal investigators in 2020, after Stylianos’ death, she described his behaviour at school, the difficulties he faced and what the school understood about his family environment.
Stylianos had a classroom assistant and began displaying behavioural problems as the school year progressed. He pushed desks, injuring other pupils, tried to run away and performed push-ups during lessons “to become strong and beat them all”, according to the witness.
The teacher said the child appeared to admire his father while also fearing and hating him because of his behaviour towards his mother.
Stylianos allegedly told her that his father “beats everyone, my mum, the lambs and me”.
The witness said she had been informed that Stylianos had struggled to follow lessons during pre-primary school and had displayed aggressive behaviour.
In primary school, he had a limited vocabulary and general knowledge, while lacking the access to books and educational material expected for a child of his age. She said, for example, that he did not know what dinosaurs were.
Signs of neglect and hunger
Describing his appearance at school, the teacher said that on his first day he was “a very polite child, very withdrawn, thin and very well behaved”.
As the year progressed, however, dirt began appearing on his face and hands. His clothes were often worn for several days, stained and had an unpleasant smell.
The witness also described concerns about his diet. When she or his classroom assistant asked whether he had eaten at home, he would usually say he had eaten bread, olives or pasta.
He often said he was hungry, something the teacher said happened weekly.
“He usually did not bring food to school, and his assistant often bought food for him herself,” she testified.
The teacher said Stylianos was very thin but muscular and would say he was strong because he worked. Staff did not see him participating in sporting activities at school.
The school requested that he attend an after-school club so he could receive meals and would not have to work, but he attended only briefly.
Injuries reported to welfare services
According to the witness, the school informed the Social Welfare Services about the problems it identified, including concerns about cleanliness, food and the child’s accounts of violence at home.
The teacher said she saw abrasions on his body on two or three occasions.
In one instance, Stylianos arrived with what she described as a “split head and clotted blood” on his scalp. The child said he had hit a tree. The incident was reported to the Social Welfare Services through the school administration.
She also testified that she saw what appeared to be a cigarette burn on his body and reported it immediately. She said the mark was not recent.
According to information the school received from the Social Welfare Services, teachers were required to look for fresh marks because the services could proceed with the case only when recent injuries were present.
Alleged threat following school meeting
The witness referred to a multidisciplinary meeting held in March 2011, which the father attended for the first time. The family’s living conditions and Stylianos’ behaviour were among the matters discussed.
The teacher testified that the father was allegedly offended by the discussion, returned home to collect his hunting shotgun and then went back to the school, where he threatened to “cut off her legs”.
She also described Stylianos’ behaviour following multidisciplinary meetings.
According to the witness, his parents allegedly told him that school staff spoke badly about him, wanted to remove him from his family and that the “woman who takes little children” attended the meetings.
“Stylianos would come in the following day and ask, with a great deal of anger, whether we had said those things about him. He would clench his teeth. He was so angry and would not listen. We had to speak to him for a long time so that he could understand what we were saying and calm down,” she said.
The school had asked the parents not to tell him what was discussed during the meetings because, as the teacher said, “we were there to help”.
Academic progress and accounts from the farm
The witness said that by Easter, Stylianos had learned addition up to 10 and mental arithmetic up to five, while the other pupils had moved on to multiplication and division.
Following one multidisciplinary meeting, the school was informally briefed on the results of an assessment that allegedly found the child to have “borderline intelligence”.
The teacher also recounted what Stylianos had told her about life on the farm. According to the child, wild dogs frequently attacked the lambs.
He was particularly attached to one lamb, which his father allegedly slaughtered “to teach him a lesson”. The witness said Stylianos cried, apologised and promised not to do it again, but his father killed the animal.
Mother’s accounts of violence
The witness said the child’s mother initially told her that the father was violent towards both her and Stylianos.
According to the teacher, the mother said her husband had once hit her because she had not cooked. She also said she struggled to wake up in the morning because of medication she was taking.
The mother reportedly said that her husband became angry when she sought help from other residents of their village.
The witness said the mother later stopped telling her about incidents of violence. She described her on some occasions as appearing “dazed”, explaining that communicating with her was difficult.
During school breaks, Stylianos often preferred to sit alone and speak with his classroom assistant. When encouraged to play with the other children, he said he wanted to rest and appeared to lack energy.
“He was a withdrawn child, but I think the difficulties and his thoughts had overwhelmed him. I do not think that was his true character,” the teacher said.
Cross-examination set for September 11
The defence is due to begin its cross-examination of the witness at 11am on September 11.
The case concerns the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of 14-year-old Stylianos Konstantinou in September 2019. The court is examining possible responsibility both within the family and on the part of state services.
Source: CNA
