Parents charged in infant malnutrition death remain in custody

Two parents facing manslaughter charges after their three-month-old child died of malnutrition will remain in custody until their trial begins, it emerged on Friday.

The case has been referred to criminal court, following a Nicosia district court decision.

Both the 23-year-old father and the 21-year-old mother are currently serving a remand order. The father was re-remanded on Wednesday for eight days, while the mother was remanded on Sunday also for eight days.

Their three-month-old daughter died on July 28 as a result of severe malnutrition and was found covered in bites, believed to be from insects.

Her living conditions were described as ‘unimaginable’ with her diaper unchanged , barely fed and severely neglected.

The parents were living in an apartment with another five tenants in Nicosia. No records exist of the baby’s birth.

The 23-year-old father had initially claimed that the mother had abandoned the child two days before the incident to search for work in Salonica, however police found that she had left the house on the day the infant died.

Investigators searched their house and did not find any indication of proper childcare, such as available milk and nappies.

The mother retuned voluntarily to Cyprus via Larnaca airport on Saturday, where she was arrested and subsequently remanded for eight days by the Nicosia district court on Sunday.