The father at the center of the Kypseli child abuse case abducted his children from Agia Sofia Children's Hospital three...

The father at the center of the Kypseli child abuse case abducted his children from Agia Sofia Children's Hospital three separate times, and authorities were notified each time, according to Michalis Giannakos, head of the hospital workers' union POEDIN. Giannakos gave a detailed account to Meganews 104.6 radio. The children were first brought to Agia Sofia in June 2023 under prosecutor's orders after being found neglected. Hospital staff spent a month and a half searching for a welfare placement and found nothing. The father showed up and took them. Staff notified the prosecutor that the children had been abducted. The father returned in August and took them again. In September, a girl was found alone on the street, and the father took her a third time. Each time, police and prosecutors were alerted. Nothing stopped him. Giannakos said the identity documents the father presented were of questionable authenticity, as he alternated between using his own surname and the mother's. During the first hospital admissions, doctors found evidence of neglect but no sexual abuse. The last admission was different. The children were found to be carrying sexually transmitted diseases. One infant from the same family is now dead, killed in what prosecutors have described as a brutal homicide. Giannakos was direct: if Greece's child welfare system had functioned at even a basic level, that baby would still be alive. The case has exposed a systemic breakdown that goes beyond this one family. Right now, 50 children are being held in the two Athens children's hospitals, Agia Sofia and Aglaia Kyriakou, under prosecutor's orders because there are no welfare placements available. Welfare units across the country have dozens of empty beds that cannot be filled because there is no staff to run them. According to Giannakos, hiring that staff could open those units immediately. POEDIN has sent hundreds of letters to prosecutors and police warning that hospitals cannot provide the security these children need. The letters apparently went nowhere. #Greece #ChildProtection #Kypseli