Nicosia, Cyprus. A criminal investigator testified on Monday that social welfare officers failed to follow prescribed procedures in the case of 14-year-old Stylianos Constantinou, who died by suicide in September 2019. The testimony was heard at the Nicosia district court.
Investigation findings presented to court
Appearing as a prosecution witness, Andreas Andreou presented findings from the criminal investigation into the boy’s death, saying entries in the child’s welfare file showed that mandatory protocols were not applied in several incidents involving him.
Andreou focused on an entry dated May 13, 2019, less than four months before Stylianos died, in which a welfare officer recorded that the boy had attempted suicide two days earlier.
Information relayed and follow-up actions
Andreou told the court that the information had been passed to welfare officers by the boy’s mother, and that police had also been informed.
However, he said the actions that followed “do not appear to have led to the immediate provision of specialised psychological or psychiatric support to the minor, something that should have been considered”.
Statements and welfare records
Andreou presented interrogatory statements taken from the accused welfare officers during the investigation, along with copies of the service’s file on Stylianos’ family.
The file contained records of domestic violence incidents that had concerned police, including one in which the boy’s father, also a defendant, allegedly beat Stylianos after blaming him for the death of a farm animal.
Welfare officers’ observations recorded in the file described the family home as being in a state of squalor, with conditions of “inadequate hygiene”.
Earlier referrals and meetings
The court heard that a referral of Stylianos to the welfare services by the educational psychology service dated to when he was attending preschool and that a multidisciplinary meeting had been held in 2011 to address the difficulties he was facing.
Andreou said these documents were shown to the coordinating officer of the case, as “she should have been aware of them”.
What actions, if any, should welfare services take when informed that a minor has attempted suicide?
