A DAD who fatally poisoned his three children to death and tried to commit suicide did so “because he was too broke,” a court has heard. Harald Kopitz, 57, doped his children’s drinks with a cocktail of drugs before taking an overdose of blood pressure pills. The court in Zagreb, Croatia heard his four-year-old son […]
A DAD who fatally poisoned his three children to death and tried to commit suicide did so “because he was too broke,” a court has heard.
Harald Kopitz, 57, doped his children’s drinks with a cocktail of drugs before taking an overdose of blood pressure pills.
The court in Zagreb, Croatia heard his four-year-old son was found dead in bed while twins – a boy and a girl aged seven – were found in the living room.
But before attempting to take his own life, the dad posted a chilling farewell note on Facebook, which read “Farewell to you all, I’m leaving you. I just cannot do this anymore.”
At a hearing this week Judge Iva Gradishki Lovrechek accused Kopitz of robbing the innocents of their future before jailing him for 50 years.
Judge Lovrechek said: “You killed three humans at the very beginning of their lives. You robbed them of their future.”
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She added: “Being a mother myself it is just inexplicable to me that you killed them when you did not want to live anymore.
“They put all of their trust in you.”
Kopitz, an Austrian national, was said to have been depressed because he had lost his job and been dumped by his girlfriend.
But sentencing the judge said: “Being short of money is no justification to murder three young human beings.”
The doomed youngsters had been on a joint custody visit to their father’s apartment last September, following his divorce from their mother, when the incident took place.
Kopitz, who was formerly a financial adviser, had been declared sane and accountable for his actions by a psychiatric expert.
Croatian media quoted him as saying that he took his children’s lives as he “didn’t want to die alone.”
The suspect’s defence lawyer Marko Ivica, confirmed her client has filed an appeal.
