ĐORĐEVIĆ v. CROATIA JUDGMENT
3
and all the flower beds torn up. She also told the police that the first
applicant had been harassed for a longer period of time by children in the
neighbourhood on account of his mental retardation. She named two of the
children.
10. On 2 March 2009 the Susedgrad Social Welfare Centre ordered the
supervision of the parental care of D.K., a pupil at A.K. primary school, on
account of his poor school results, problematic behaviour and tendency to
commit criminal offences. There was no mention of his involvement in the
harassment of the applicants.
11. A medical report drawn up on 6 April 2009 shows that the first
applicant had been psychologically and physically harassed in the street and
that he had cigarette burns on both hands. The doctor asked the social
authorities to institute proceedings for the protection of the first applicant as
a person with serious mental disorders and described him as a peaceful and
benign person who could not and did not know how to defend himself from
the abusers.
12. In a letter of 20 April 2009 to the Ombudswoman for Persons with
Disabilities, the second applicant complained that on 4 April 2009 two
children, D.K. and I.M., had harassed the first applicant. She alleged that
while riding their bicycles they had approached the first applicant and
burned his hands with cigarettes. She also complained that the first
applicant had been continually harassed by children attending a nearby
school on the basis of his mental retardation and added that she had on
numerous occasions complained to the Susedgrad Social Welfare Centre
and the authorities of the A.K. primary school, but to no avail.
13. On the same day the applicants’ lawyer complained to the police
about the incident of 4 April 2009.
14. A police report of 5 May 2009 records that on that day on the
premises of the II Zagreb Police Station the police interviewed D.K., born in
1997, and P.B., born in 1995. The relevant part of the report in respect of
D.K. reads:
“When asked whether he remembers the event of 4 April 2009 in ... Zagreb, [D.K.]
said that at about 12 noon he was there with his friend I.M., who is in the seventh
grade at A.K. primary school, and that P.B., an older boy from the seventh grade of
the same school, arrived together with two men, unknown to him, who were playing
with a ball. A person who is disabled and has had problems from birth and who lives
in a block of flats in ... Street was playing between the buildings. At one point, P.B. lit
a cigarette, approached Dalibor and burned his right hand several times, after which
they all ran away because that person started to shout.”
The relevant part of the report in respect of P.B. reads:
“When asked whether he remembers the event of 4 April 2009 in ... Zagreb,
concerning the harassment of a disabled person, Dalibor Đorđević, [P.B.] says that he
was not present on that occasion but that at the beginning of that week during the
morning break he had met D.K., who is in the fifth grade at the same school and who
told him that he [D.K.] and I.M. at about 12 noon on Saturday had burned with a