Father of child left to die in car offers 'no excuses'

Photo: sxc.hu

The incident in Rybnik, southern Poland, during last week's heatwave gained widespread media coverage.

“He is not looking for any excuses and he has a very big, indeed vast sense of guilt about what happened,” Prosecutor Jacek Slawik told the TVN24 news channel.

The father was supposed to drop off his daughter at a nursery in the town on Tuesday morning, but he left her in a locked car and went to work while the sun blazed down on the car park.

Krzysztof S. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws) was charged with manslaughter on Friday, but Slawik stressed that no temporary measures to restrict his liberty will be made as “there is no fear that he will obstruct the investigation.”

The father told prosecutors that he only realised the child was still in the vehicle after finishing work on Tuesday afternoon, when he returned to the car.

Attempts to revive her were in vain.

“He is absolutely incapable of explaining – he just doesn't know why he did not drive to the nursery but went straight to the car park,” Slawik said.

Krzysztof S. faces a prison sentence of up to five years. (nh)