The court upheld the four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for a 30-year-old woman who attacked a shop assistant in Gijicko (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship) with a meat grinder. He hit him on the head, then hit him all over the body. Finally, he took the money from the cash register and ran away. The lawyer asked for a lighter sentence and argued that the meat grinder is not a dangerous tool. But the court decided otherwise.
The robbery in a grocery store and monopolist in Gizhikko happened almost a year ago. According to the local police at that time, this young woman started a conversation with the seller, then took a meat grinder from her purse and hit the 56-year-old woman on the head. Then she hit him all over his body.
A struggle ensued and the woman who was attacked fled the store. The attacker then went behind the counter and took at least PLN 800 from the store's cash register.
The court left TVN24's verdict unchanged
The seller suffered serious head and arm injuries
The police arrested him a few hours later. He was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and causing bodily harm to the assaulted woman. He was also charged with a second crime – theft of a watch worth PLN 1,500.
The court of first instance sentenced this 30-year-old man to four and a half years in prison. The woman was also forced to pay PLN 15,000 in compensation to the seller (she suffered severe head and arm injuries).
The defense lawyer suggested that he be sentenced to two and a half years in prison
The defense lawyer appealed against the court verdict. He wanted to admit that the meat grinder was not a dangerous tool. And therefore – a change in the legal classification of the document. He proposed to impose a lighter sentence – two years and two months in prison.
He argued that a wooden kitchen meat grinder “does not have the characteristics of another similarly dangerous object.” This is a provision in the Criminal Code on robbery with a dangerous weapon, which refers to a firearm, knife or “other similarly dangerous object”.
The prosecution noted that the pestle had metal fittings
– The assumption that the use of an object is dangerous or determines its absence creates the risk of uncertainty of this group of objects. Because it can easily be assumed that wood or ordinary wood can be a dangerous object, if it is used like this, – said defense attorney Voyseh Butrim in his final speech.
The prosecution wanted to reject the complaint. Prosecutor Veronika Rybnik noted that the pestle has metal fittings.
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– Taking into account the characteristics of cooking meat, but its normal daily use (…) there should be no doubt that it is something else, dangerous. We use it to break the meat, which we cannot break with other objects, he said.
He emphasized that this already proves that it is a dangerous item that is being used outside of its intended purpose.
He said he was very shy and sorry
The accused was brought to court, he cried, apologized and asked for a lighter sentence. – I am very ashamed of what I have done and I am very sorry – she said in her last words.
However, the Court of Appeal in Białystok left the verdict of the first instance unchanged. Judge Jerzy Szyurewski justified the sentence, saying that the crime was carried out with complete planning and design, and the blows were struck with great force in places that were sensitive to human life.
The court emphasized that the meat used in this way is “undoubtedly” a dangerous tool. He addressed, among other things: the opinion of experts.
Court: After the blows, no tears were shed in the courtroom
As Judge Shchyurevskii said, the decisive issue is that the pestle had metal fittings, and when it was used by a 30-year-old woman during the first attack, it was a dangerous tool and there were many blows.
Referring to the sentence, the appeals court found no reason to reduce it. – The only mitigating factor that we can appreciate so much are the tears shed in the courtroom today. But after the blows, after taking the money (…) there were no such tears. He did not regret this action, the judge explained.
He added that although this woman confessed her guilt, the situation of the attack was already known from the surveillance videos. The verdict is final.
Main photo source: TVN24
