The family liaison officer who was assigned to Stylianos Constantinou, the 15-year-old boy who ended his life by suicide in 2019, on Tuesday told the Nicosia district court that “many alarm bells” had been raised regarding his living conditions in the years leading up to his death.

She was speaking as a prosecution witness in the trial of 11 people – Constantinou’s parents and nine employees of the social welfare services department – regarding the circumstances surrounding his death, and told the court that he had been subject to a “very serious” case of neglect.

Her involvement in Constantinou’s life began in 2010 when she was assigned to provide special education and speech therapy to him, and she told the court that “from the first session”, she had “realised that this was not a simple case of learning or speech therapy difficulties, but a very complex case”.

She said that just five days after she had been assigned to work with him, the question of whether he should be held back a year at pre school was raised, and that while most people involved were in favour of the idea, his mother did not agree.

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Then, she said, in January 2011, she had been told that the children in his house were “very dirty” and that “there were mice, cockroaches and dogs in the house”.

Additionally, she said, “the father was brutally beating the mother, and the mother was beating Stylianos”.

She also told the court that the teaching assistant assigned to him had “considered resigning” as she had “developed rashes which were attributed to dirt”, while the child who sat next to him in class had “developed similar skin problems”.

On one occasion, she said, she had “become emotional” after seeing him at school, as his appearance exhibited an “incredible lack of care”.

She said that he “smelled” and had black marks on his hands, fingernails, and face.

Regarding his attainment at school, she said that he had “learning difficulties, fine motor difficulties, outbursts of anger, disorganisation, aggression and difficulties in relationships with other children”.

As such, she added, it was “obvious” that there were “issues of violence and neglect”.

She went on to say that he had reported that his father had “slaughtered” his “favourite goats” as a punishment.

Later, she said, following a conference with his mother in February 2011 in which “goals [had been] set [regarding] cleanliness, food security and confidentiality”, his relationship with his teacher and his teaching assistant had “collapsed” after he learned what had been discussed at the conference.

She said that he had begun to call his teachers “liars” and exhibit “very aggressive behaviour”, and also had shouted “not home!” when he was told that his parents would pick him up from school.

Her final conference with his parents came in May that year, when she said that “efforts had begun to improve the [child’s] living conditions” and that “there was a better picture of the child’s relations with the school environment”.

The trial will continue on Wednesday.

Constantinou was found dead at his family farm on September 5, 2019.

The government empowered ombudswoman Maria Stylianou Lottides to launch an investigation into the matter in September that year.

In her report, she found that both the police and the social welfare services department had failed to recognise the psychological violence directed at Constantinou by his father, as well as a pattern of violent behaviour towards his mother.

She said the social workers assigned to the case had showed “utter criminal negligence” and that as such, they may bear criminal responsibility for his death, while also saying that police officers had violated their own regulations and failed to inform the relevant government department about incidences of domestic violence.

After Constantinou’s death, his two younger siblings were removed from the family home.