A court in Athens has sentenced Roula Pispirigou to two additional life terms on Tuesday for killing her two infant daughters, Malena and Irida, after she was already serving a life sentence for the murder of her nine-year-old daughter, Georgina.
The court found that Pispirigou, 36, suffocated Malena and Irida in 2019 and 2021 in an attempt to stop her husband from leaving her. She has denied the charges and is expected to appeal.
Pispirigou had been convicted in March 2024 of poisoning Georgina using ketamine, a substance used in veterinary medicine and some depression treatments.
Following this, authorities reassessed the deaths of Malena and Irida, leading to new murder charges.
Trial prosecutor Vassiliki Dimopoulou told the court, “She killed her children to keep her marriage going. This shows a person who acted methodically and with forethought.”
Malena, aged three and a half, was initially said to have died from acute liver failure. Irida, who was just six months old, had been declared dead from heart failure.
However, medical tests after Georgina’s death revealed both girls had actually been suffocated.
Pispirigou, a trained nurse from Patras, was also found guilty of trying to kill Georgina multiple times before finally succeeding in January 2022 while the child was in the hospital.
Greek media have referred to Pispirigou as a “modern-day Medea”, comparing her to the Greek mythological figure who killed her own children after being abandoned by her husband.
With this latest court ruling, Pispirigou is now serving three life sentences for the tragic deaths of her daughters.
