Convicted of rape, inflicting serious injuries, threats, and violating a child's rights. In a separate case, Adem M. was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment after throwing a neighbor into a well.
The County Court in Zagreb has non-final sentenced a 25-year-old physiotherapist from central Croatia to nine years in prison for four serious criminal offenses committed against a then-17-year-old girl. The offenses include rape, inflicting serious bodily harm, death threats, and violating a child's rights, all dating from 2024, when the convict was two years younger.
The physiotherapist has already been behind bars for nearly two years, and this time will be credited toward his final sentence. In the nine-year sentence, the court panel also included a revoked suspended sentence of nine months, which had been imposed for threats. In addition to the prison term, he was given a security measure of two years of psychosocial treatment and a ban on approaching the victim within 100 meters and contacting her for a full four years after serving his prison sentence. The accused has denied guilt from the start and refutes all allegations.
According to the indictment from the Zagreb prosecutor's office, the young man psychologically and physically abused the minor during a relationship lasting several months. He forced her into sexual acts she did not want, was rough with her, and raped her. Along with slapping and threats of beatings, he also threatened to "kill her family with a gun" if she reported him to the police.
The abuse included belittling, insults, stepping on her toes, choking her, and restricting her from socializing with friends. He waited for her outside school, monitored her phone, and forced her to report her every move. He forced her to use cocaine and marijuana and to give him money to buy drugs. On one occasion, he inflicted a serious bodily injury on the minor and then cut his own arm to elicit her sympathy. Eventually, the girl began self-harming and contemplating suicide.
In a completely separate case, a non-final decision was also announced on the same day for Adem M. (46) from Lonjica near Vrbovec. On October 22, 2025, he threw his 68-year-old neighbor into a well about six meters deep, then threw various objects at her head and closed the well with boards. Due to being legally insane at the time of the attack, instead of prison, he was ordered to undergo six months of psychiatric treatment in a hospital setting.
"I came to the yard to let the dog out. But Adem suddenly approached me from behind, grabbed me, and threw me into the well. And then he threw some iron object at my head, I think a hammer, and also roof tiles," the victim recounted in court. She added that Adem M. told her: "You're still alive, you're still alive!"
The woman suffered hematomas and a head wound, but fortunately nothing was broken. The water level in the well was 142 centimeters. "He gave me a plank to hold onto, but he couldn't pull me out himself, so another neighbor came to help," the victim said.
The neighbor who first spotted her said that on that day he went to fetch water from the well located on the boundary of their yards. "I noticed Adem sitting on a chair in the neighbor's yard and heard a woman's voice crying for help from the well. The neighbor in the well told me: 'Help, Adem threw me into the well,'" he recounted. After realizing he couldn't pull her out alone, he went to get help from a neighbor where the accused's brother was also present, and they helped pull the woman out.
While they were rescuing her, Adem M. sat about ten meters away at a wooden table, silent, and then walked off into the unknown. The victim emphasized that she was not on bad terms with the accused. "I even let him sleep overnight in my barn," she stated.
"It's true that I threw my neighbor into the well. I want to go to the hospital for treatment. I swear I will never do such a thing again. Never again. I'm sorry. I also won't defend myself if someone attacks me," Adem M. said in the courtroom.
According to the supplementary psychiatric evaluation, Adem M. could not understand the meaning of his actions nor control his will at the time of the attack. In his early youth, the accused survived two traffic accidents, the consequences of which included severe brain damage.
