Russian couple jailed 20 years for starving toddler daughter to death in coffin-like box

WARNING: Disturbing details. A Russian couple has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for subjecting their two-year-old daughter to prolonged abuse that ultimately led to her death.

Ekaterina O., 29, and Ilya A., 31, were found guilty of torture, illegal imprisonment and murder of their young daughter Sonya in what the court described as “special cruelty.” Sun.

The pair imprisoned the toddler in a homemade “small box with a lid” that resembled a coffin for periods of more than five months, sometimes trapping him for up to two days, according to the trial in the Khabarovsk Regional Court.

The court was told, “The child could not move, stand upright, or even sit down.”

Prosecutors said the couple kept their daughter in dirty, stuffy conditions and were unable to provide even basic care.

“Those living together neglected the child’s care and hygiene and kept him in unhealthy conditions,” the hearing report said.

“They deprived the girl of food and water or fed her minimal amounts, causing the child to die from severe protein-energy malnutrition.”

The abuse, which began in June, worsened as the child’s condition deteriorated. By October Sonya was critically weak.

SHOT media reported that “the girl barely survived, weighing less than 10 kilograms, half her weight in the spring.”

He became unresponsive and too weak to cry.

“For the last few days, heartless parents watched their little girl die.”

The couple from Komsomolsk-on-Amur confessed their crimes in court. Disturbingly, they said their “unplanned” daughter was “disturbing them with her movements around the one-room apartment”, which was only 28 square metres.

NTV channel ChP reported: “Sonya was an unwanted child, and her parents, a 27-year-old woman and her 29-year-old husband, found a way to get rid of her.

“They made a ‘coffin’ for the little girl, a cramped box with a lid.

“In this case, the child could neither sit up nor sit properly.

“The girl was almost never bathed, and in recent months they stopped giving her food and water regularly.”

Sonya weighed less than 10 kilos when she died, after months of starvation.

After the woman’s death, the duo tried to cover up what happened by claiming that she had succumbed to the disease. However, when relatives saw the child and expressed their concerns, emergency services were notified.

Police said the couple later admitted “they did not want her to give birth or be involved in the raising process.”

While the father served his sentence in a strict regime penal colony, the mother was sent to a general regime colony.

The case sparked widespread outrage in Russia, with many saying the sentence was too lenient.

“Life imprisonment is not enough for them, let alone 20 years,” one comment read.

“It’s time to bring back the death penalty.

“But they will receive water, food and medical treatment in prison.”

Another said: “Disgusting creatures, let them live their worthless lives, dying slowly in pain as we impose a moratorium on the death penalty for such freaks.”

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