Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, April 6 (CTK) – A Czech court sentenced Zdenek Hryscenko, a 37-year-old repeat offender, to 16 years in prison on Thursday for having kidnapped two children in north Bohemia last year.
After completing his prison sentence, Hryscenko will be placed in a security detention facility, the court decided.
Hryscenko himself repeatedly asked the court to impose a life sentence on him.
The verdict is not yet valid. The state attorney gave up the right to appeal it, while Hryscenko’s defence lawyer said he will consider whether to do so.
In late August 2016, Hryscenko kidnapped a 16-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl from the Litomerice area and held them captive in a specially arranged garage in Usti nad Labem.
The boy succeeded in sending a code message about their whereabouts to his parents in a letter he was allowed to write to them. Finally, the police liberated them after ten days.
Hryscenko faced up to 12 years in prison, but the court decided to increase the sentence by one third.
Judge Jiri Bednar said such an increase is possible if the perpetrator was previously punished for serious crimes or the possibility of their rehabilitation is low.
“In the case of this suspect, both conditions have been met, since his previous criminal activities were very serious. Previously, too, he committed the crime of kidnapping children… Experts have concluded that the possibility of his reintegration in society is minimal,” Bendar told CTK.
Experts said Hryscenko probably suffers from a serious personality disorder and heterosexual pedophilia, which is why they proposed his placing in security detention after his stay in prison.
Bednar said Hryscenko would have a chance to leave the detention only if he underwent treatment and cooperated with experts.
“If not, the court has met his wish an sentenced him to life. If no change occurred in the detention facility, his stay there may be in fact prolonged until the end of his life,” Bednar said.
The court awarded a financial compensation to the kidnapped victims, 500,000 crowns to the girl and 250,000 to the boy.
Experts said the children suffer from a post-traumatic stress disorder.
Apart from the kidnapping, the court also punished Hryscenko for making child pornography. He videoed a seven-year-old girl in Usti nad Labem last year.
