Woman to stand trial in Poland for assaulting Ukrainian teenagers near swimming pool

A 26-year-old woman has been detained in the Polish city of Legnica on suspicion of assaulting two 13-year-old Ukrainian girls and another child near a swimming pool. She faces up to seven and a half years in prison.

Source: Polish news portal RMF24, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The incident involving the suspect and the children took place on Saturday evening. It came to light after the mother of the two Ukrainian girls described what had happened in a Facebook post. She said her daughters had been playing near a swimming pool with other children when another woman approached them with her own children and reprimanded them for speaking Ukrainian in Poland.

The woman continued harassing the children and, during one of the confrontations, punched one of the mother's daughters, another girl and a boy who had stepped in to defend them. She also told the children she had attacked them because they are from Ukraine.

Jagoda Ekiert, head of the Legnica District Police Headquarters, said on Wednesday that officers had worked intensively to establish the exact course of events. They reviewed recordings, identified witnesses and gathered evidence.

Police identified the 26-year-old woman suspected of assaulting the children. She was detained and taken to the District Prosecutor's Office in Legnica, where charges were brought against her.

The charges concern causing bodily harm or impairment of health lasting no longer than seven days. Prosecutors also charged her with coercing another person to act through the use of violence or unlawful threats.

If convicted, the suspect faces up to seven years and six months' imprisonment. She has been placed under police supervision and banned from approaching the victims or the playground on Polarna Street in Legnica.

Background:

• Earlier, Polish police detained two men suspected of assaulting an elderly tram passenger who had stood up for a Ukrainian man.
• Separately, a 54-year-old man who verbally abused underage Ukrainian girls on a bus in the city of Bielsko-Biała was formally charged.

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