A 38-year-old local man charged in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend this week, a shocking murder that rekindled heated deliberations in the country over a perceived spike in fatal domestic violence, was remanded on Thursday to a prison’s psychiatric ward.
The murder of 28-year-old Kyriaki Griva also generated a firestorm of criticism of law enforcement’s mishandling of the victim’s pleas for help and the failure of police officers to discern the danger she was in from an ex-boyfriend turned dangerous stalker.
Griva was stabbed multiple times in the back by the suspect T.K., moments after she exited the police precinct in the working-class Aghii Anargyri district in the northwest greater Athens area. Accompanied by a friend she sought protection by police at the precinct. Unable to secure a police car to take her home she called the emergency 100 number – Greece’s version of 911 – from outside the station, at which time she was attacked.
CCTV footage in the immediate seconds before the man plunged his knife in the woman’s back have been broadcast on several television stations.
In a brief initial statement before an investigating magistrate, the perpetrator claimed he did not remember anything from the night of the murder. He was treated the same evening for what physicians called superficial and self-inflicted knife wounds.
According to media reports, he has served jail time.
On Wednesday a defense attorney presented a document in which his client claims serious and chronic psychiatric illnesses, for which he has been hospitalized seven times in the last decade.
