Lithuanian court upholds six-and-a-half-year sentence for man convicted of severely injuring toddler

A Lithuanian appeals court has rejected the complaint of a man convicted of severely injuring a two-year-old girl in 2022, upholding his six-and-a-half-year prison sentence, LRT reports.

Vytautas Juškevičius had appealed against his conviction, seeking acquittal, but the court dismissed his challenge on Thursday. The ruling confirms the original verdict handed down by Šiauliai Regional Court in May 2023, which found him guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to the child.

In addition to the prison term, Juškevičius was ordered to pay over €20,000 to the State Patient Fund for the child’s medical treatment and €3,000 in non-pecuniary damages. The appeals court decision is final and takes immediate effect.

The incident occurred on December 25, 2022, when the girl, then two years old, was rushed from Raseiniai Hospital to Kaunas Clinics in critical condition. She had suffered severe abdominal trauma, losing a kidney, and was left in a coma. A pre-trial investigation began the following day after signs of abuse were identified.

According to case materials, the child’s mother and her twin daughters were visiting Juškevičius at his home when the assault took place. The mother discovered her daughter unconscious on the floor after hearing screams from another room. Juškevičius denied any wrongdoing throughout the investigation and trial.

Rimantas Kėvalas, head of the Children’s Clinic at Kaunas Clinics, testified that the child’s injuries could only have resulted from deliberate violent actions. Investigators noted that the trigger for the attack remains unclear, though one possible factor was the child soiling her pants.