Don't abuse them twice

It is difficult to take a distant look at the case of the abused boys from Kuřim. Some have decided to ignore it, while others search the papers for every new detail in the case. Paradoxically, good information in this case does not mean deeper understanding. The more we know about the maltreatment of Ondřej and Jakub, the less we understand it. The dark and confusing case will be difficult to resolve even for the Brno court which opened the trial of five suspects last week. The case offers a lesson, however.

Problems with power

The world seems to have gone mad, considering the news we read in the papers. In neighbouring Austria, psychopaths keep children in cellars, torture them and rape them. A male nurse in the Havlíčkův Brod hospital murders several patients with a heparin shot just for fun. In southern Moravia, a man enslaves a group of female pensioners to set up a sect combined with a labour camp. Plus the Kuřim case – mother and sister brutally abuse children, while a few of their friends assist; the family adopts a strange identity juggler, and a mysterious sect leader intervenes in the case side by side with an unknown „doctor“ who gives orders via short messages.

It is hard to say whether there has been an increase in these frightening cases lately or whether they have surfaced accidentally. They are frightening because they are difficult to understand;…