Both parents of the underage children on the island of Pag who were thrown off the balcony of their family home by their father were convicted in 2017 of negligence in caring for the children and improper parenting.

The spokesman for Zadar Municipal Court told Hina on Saturday in reference to media reports about the case of Josip Rodjak, 54, who is charged with attempted quadruple murder, that in late 2017 Rodjak and his wife were given a conditional sentence of one year and three years of probation for negligence in caring for the children and abuse of children’s rights.

On Thursday morning, in an unprecedented case of domestic violence, Rodjak threw his four underage children aged three, five, seven, and eight off the balcony of their home in Pag. The children suffered serious injuries and were admitted to a hospital in the nearby city of Zadar. One of them, a 7-year-old girl, was in a life-threatening condition and was transported to a Zagreb hospital after her condition stabilised. On Saturday morning, the hospitals in Zagreb and Zadar stated that the children were recovering well.

On Friday, 30-day-long detention was set for the 54-year-old father.

On Friday afternoon, Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Minister Nada Murganic in reference to the outrageous incident said that gross negligence was identified at the local social welfare centre and that she would demand the replacement of the centre’s director. Preliminary inquiries conducted by inspection teams indicated gross negligence on the part of the Zadar centre’s director and my recommendation is that the director should be replaced, the minister said after visiting the injured children in a Zadar hospital on Friday morning.