A 31-year-old woman inmate
serving time for drugs offences at Rome's Rebibbia prison killed
one of her children at the jail and tried to kill another, Lillo
Di Mauro, the head of the Consulta Penitenziaria watchdog, said
on Tuesday.
"The attack is said to have taken place in the nursery
section, where children aged up to three years are hosted," Di
Mauro said.
The victim was a four-month-old girl while the injured child
is a 20-month-old boy.
The second child was badly injured and has been taken to
hospital in a critical condition, sources said.
He has been placed on life support after suffering critical
brain injuries, hospital sources said.
The woman, a German national, throw both of the children down
a flight of steps, sources said.
She was admitted to Rebibbia on August 27, sources said.
Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede went to Rome's Bambino Gesù
Hospital where the boy is being treated.
The minister spoke to the doctors and the president of the
institute.
The justice ministry went on to open an internal inquiry into
the incident.
"I can only say that the ministry has opened an internal
probe to see who was responsible," he said.
Warders' union SPP said "keeping children in jail is
torture".
"This tragedy could have been averted and others must be
averted," said SPP chief Aldo Di Giacomo.
"Children shouldn't be kept in prison: for them it is a
torture; it's not possible for something like this to happen.
"The minister must intervene".
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