Mother in Patras filicide case to face court on first child’s death

Twenty days before the one-year anniversary of the death of 9-year-old Georgina, in the Intensive Care Unit of the Children’s Hospital, her 34-year-old mother, Roula Pispirigou, is expected to sit in the docket of the Joint Jury Court of Athens today accused of killing the child by giving her a lethal dose of ketamine.

The death of 9-year-old Georgina, the eldest of the three girls that Roula Pispirigou had with her estranged husband Manos Daskalakis, was the event that drew the attention of the authorities to the family from Patras and to the “sudden” death , within three years, of the other two children, 3.5-year-old Malena and 6-month-old Iris.

Roula Pispirigou was arrested last March for the murder of her first-born daughter, Georgina, and despite her claims of innocence, she was not only remanded in custody, but criminal proceedings were also brought against her for the deaths of her two youngest children, a case for which soon he is expected to apologize before the competent investigator.

Indeed, after the end of that deposition, the judicial officer together with the prosecutor will decide on the further criminal treatment of the accused and in this second pending case against her,

“No mother can harm her own child. The accusation against me is based on random evidence gathered after the tragic event of my child in the context of an attempt to find an obvious cause and assign responsibility for his death”, argued Roula Pispirigou in her first five-hour apology to investigator Christina Salappa, who had handled the case for Georgina’s murder.

The motives

The judicial council, also adopting the proposal of the prosecutor Giorgos Noulis, mentions in its will that the 34-year-old had tried to kill the child by administering ketamine in April 2021, but she finally succeeded in January 2022, when the child was hospitalized at the “CHILDREN’S” hospital, at the time she was alone in the room with him.

Her motivations, according to the judicial referral, should be sought in the elements of Roula Pispirigou’s personality that characterize her as “ideas of grandeur associated with publicity / celebrity, but not grounded in reality, in the embrace of the perception that she can gain publicity/celebrity through delinquent acts […] the deprivation of any genuine feeling in centering (in a prominent role) thoughts and investments around her already estranged husband and supporting the charge, with an intentional expression of possessiveness over him […] from the fear of abandonment’.

Roula Pispirigou perceived her children “as a narcissistic extension of herself”, says the referal document, which attributes to her “insolence, intense anti-sociality, indifference to human life, lowly motives and particular dangerousness”.

“Don’t be sure there will be a trial”

The accused is expected to fight the first “battle” with the assistance of her defense attorney Alexis Kougias, who, since taking over her defense, has vehemently disputed the evidence as well as the witness statements.

For this reason, he has requested that other witnesses be called in the parallel investigation into the death of the two youngest children. “Don’t be sure that there will be a trial, I strongly suspect it with what will follow in the next few days”, Alexis Kougias said meaningfully a few days ago, while expressing his opinion that the case is the judicial error of the century.

For his part, Alexis Kougias has another criminal case in progress today, which is why during today’s meeting, if it finally starts, he is not expected to proceed in any substantive manner.