Social Worker Drowned His Disabled Baby

A social worker drowned his disabled baby son in a bath because he could not cope with the pain that the child was suffering, a court was told. Andreas Milakovic, a German national who is deaf and cannot speak, wept in the dock as the story of his “mercy killing” was told at Sheffield Crown Court.

The court was told that Milakovic’s 14-month-old son, Yacub, suffered from a rare and serious form of epilepsy called West syndrome. This had left the child blind, deaf and prone to suffering from profound and convulsive fits, which he experienced almost every day.

Yacub could not swallow, was unable to sit and could not even roll over. Doctors had described his life expectancy as “very poor”. Milakovic, 38, who was employed by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to work with deaf people in the community, was said to have become increasingly depressed at his son’s condition, which was diagnosed at the age of eight months.

Gary Burrell, QC, for the prosecution, said that two days before the killing Milakovic saw his son suffer 40 fits in one day. Each was “demonstrably painful to the child”.

In February he gave his son doses of Calpol, a painkilling medicine, and red wine before drowning him in the bath at the family’s home in Sheffield.

He then placed the boy in a cot and tried to commit suicide by drinking a bottle of vodka and lying down in the bath.

Milakovic’s partner and fellow social worker, Sharon Hirschman, who is also deaf and unable to speak, returned home from work to discover Yacub dead and her partner – who had left her a note – unconscious.

Milakovic was charged with murder, which he denied, and his plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was yesterday accepted by the prosecution. Mr Burrell said all the evidence suggested that Milakovic was a “decent, caring and hard-working” man who had reached the end of his tether.

He had been devastated when doctors informed the family of his son’s condition and soon developed symptoms of mild to severe depression, which led him “to consider ending the child’s life and his own”.

A postmortem examination of the child’s brain later confirmed the diagnosis of West syndrome, which “would almost certainly have proved fatal” to Yacub in the long term. Psychiatric reports on Milakovic suggested that at the time of the killing his depression had impaired his mental responsibility.

Mr Burrell said that the prosecution accepted the manslaughter plea because there was nothing to be gained by pursuing the charge of murder.

The judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, adjourned the hearing for further psychiatric reports but warned Milakovic, through an interpreter, that he had admitted “a serious offence, which involves taking the life of another human being”.

“This is very clearly a very sensitive case. Maybe you felt, when these events occurred, that you had no other course open to you other than to take the life of your own son,” he said. But you are before the court because nobody has the right to end a life of another human being, however desperate the situation may be felt to be.

“It is for that reason that in due course you stand to be sentenced for this serious offence of unlawfully killing your son.”

The judge told Milakovic, who was remanded in custody, that he may face “a substantial sentence of imprisonment”.