Woman weighed 25kg on death: neglecting children bag 17 years in prison

In Spain, the son and daughter of a 76-year-old woman who died from deprivation and abandonment on Tenerife, must be in jail for seventeen years.

The Supreme Court in Madrid retains the conviction on appeal and follows the sentence previously pronounced by a lower court. The completely left to her fate Ana Delia died in August 2015 and at that time weighed only 25 kilograms.

Emergency services informed the police after her son reported the death. Embalmers found the lifeless woman in fatal position in her bed. The emaciated body showed clear traces of neglect including ulcers and ligwounds. The demented and incontinent woman suffered from osteoporosis. She lived with her son, his wife and their daughter. The brother and his sister acted as guardian of their mother. They refused to feed and change her. The elderly person was also not moved, “her death was avoidable”, said the prosecutor in court.