A 40-year-old man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after his 3-year-old daughter died while locked in his car during June’s heatwave.
The father was meant to drop his child off at a kindergarten in Rybnik, southern Poland, on 10 June, but he went straight to work.
The defendant left his vehicle in an outdoor car park in the baking sun, apparently having forgotten that his daughter was still in the car. She had died by the time he returned in the afternoon.
“The accused has a vast sense of guilt about what happened,” said deputy regional prosecutor Malwina Pawela-Szendzielorz.
“There is huge pain and a sense of loss for both him and the entire family.”
The defendant is pleading guilty and he is willing to accept a year-long prison sentence, suspended for two years. If the court agrees, the sentence will be handed down without a trial.
The maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter is five years. (nh)
