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A mother and father who abused their three-year-old son in the 'most horrific way' before he died have gone on trial in Austria.
Parents Kevin and Nathalie M are accused of deliberately torturing their son, Elias, for a period of five months before he died of malnutrition and dehydration in May 2024.
They are facing life in prison on charges of cruelty, unlawful imprisonment, and murder as their trial began in Innsbruck on Monday.
The child was beaten with a wooden spoon, locked in a drawer for 22 hours a day and starved and dehydrated by his parents, according to investigators.
He was blinded, locked in total darkness, tied to the bathroom basin, showered with boiling or freezing water and forced to sleep on a slatted bed frame without a mattress, they said,
Prosecutors believe Elias' parents wanted to kill him in the most agonising way possible.
'According to the shocking results of the investigation, the parents abused the child mentally and physically in the most horrific way,' Hansjörg Mayr, spokesperson for the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office, previously said.
'They isolated the boy from the rest of family life and locked him away, completely dehumanized, humiliated and frightened him.
Elias, born in Tyrol, Austria, died weighing only seven kilograms as a result of months of malnutrition and dehydration
'They beat him with a wooden spoon, tied his hands and feet with cable ties and sometimes blindfolded him.
'They also tied him to the taps of the washbasin in the toilet and locked him up for hours in complete darkness.'
The three-year-old, who had three sisters including a twin, was excluded from the rest of the family.
His sisters, who have been sent to foster homes, were cared for and well fed while Elias was starved.
At his autopsy, he weighed just over 7kg, less than half the weight of a child his age.
The parents, who were struggling financially, lived in a 'mystical fantasy world in which an alleged demon inside the boy's body was responsible for their problems,' Mr Mayr said.
They discussed and encouraged abuse on WhatsApp chats and emails, where they documented their child's suffering with pictures and videos.
This 'created an outlet for themselves to vent and act out their sadistic tendencies,' Mr Mayr added.
'The parents also filmed some of the boy's torment and watched it live on a surveillance camera.'
The mother confessed to her actions, citing an alleged demon, while the father has previously confessed and said he regretted his actions.
But she also claimed Elias had been unwell and had no appetite in recent weeks but they had scheduled a doctor's appointment 'soon'.
On the Friday before his death, prosecutors claimed that the family went out to celebrate the eldest daughter's birthday at McDonald's, without Elias attending.
was beaten with a wooden spoon, locked in a drawer for 22 hours a day and starved and dehydrated by his parents, according to investigators
Over the weekend, they also apparently attended a medieval festival in Kufstein without him.
The parents were remanded in custody, over 'strong suspicion of murder by torture and omission,' the Innsbruck Regional Court said.
They face a life sentence over allegedly 'failing to provide the three-year-old boy with adequate food and fluids for a period of at least several weeks,' Mr Mayr said.
They are also accused of not 'contacting a doctor despite the obvious deterioration of his health and his apparent weight loss, so that the child died as a result of his massive malnutrition'.
The family moved into the apartment in Ebbs, Kufstein in September 2021 - three years before the death of Elias.
Elias's grandmother, 51, defended her son and daughter-in-law, telling Bild: 'They’re not murderers.'
'We didn't see this coming,' she said. 'I raised my children well, there were never any problems.'
'Elias was often with me; he was sickly,' she added. 'But what could I do? His parents are adults.'