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A court has recognized the evidence gathered by the Saratov Region Office of the Investigative Committee sufficient to convict Vladimir Yefimov and Maria Rodina. Yefimov was found guilty of crimes under Part 2, items “c” and “e” of Article 105 (murder of a child committed with special cruelty), Part 2, items “d”, “e” and “f” of Article 117 of the RF Penal Code (torture of a child), while Rodina was found guilty of crimes under Part 2, items “d”, “e” and “f” of Article 117 (torture of a child) and Article 125 of the RF Penal Code (endangerment).

The court and investigators have revealed that in January 2016, the 26-year-old resident of Rostov Region and her 7-year-old son arrived in the town of Saratov and started living in a detached house in Kirovsky District with the 22-year-old local resident she had met before online. Almost at once Yefimov and Rodina started using their own “methods” to raise the boy: they beat and tortured the boy for a month and half. They beat him with their hands and with a belt, as well as forced him to kneel on peas strewn on the floor with his arms tied up behind his back. From 14 to 18 March 2016, going from tortures to even crueler actions, the boy’s stepfather decided to kill child by beating him with everything that came into his hands.

All that time the mother did not help her son when he was in a state dangerous for his life and health. She could have helped and had to take care of him, including going to a hospital for the boy to get medical aid and reporting everything that was taking place to the police.

The woman and man called an ambulance on the morning of 18 March 2016, only after the boy had sopped to show any signs of life. Doctors arrived to pronounce the child dead.

According to the results of forensic medical examinations, the boy’s body had traces of more than 100 kinds of physical effects inflicted on the boy only days before his death. The boy died of a blunt force multitrauma to his body with hemorrhaging under the brain cortex, brain injury and kidney injury.

Yefimov and Rodina were placed in custody during the preliminary investigation. They charged their mind about the charges several times, but when the man read the case materials and saw the irrefutable evidence, he admitted that he had beaten the boy, while the mother stopped denying that she had endangered her own son. A psychiatric assessment found that both of them were sane and were perfectly capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of their actions.

It should be noted that the couple committed their crimes against the child while there was nobody who could confirm that they were guilty, however, the psychological contact set between the investigator and the accused, well-planned tactics of interviews and face-to-face interrogations, results of a forensic DNA test of objects confiscated from the crime scene and a set of other investigative operations allowed establishing their guilt.

During the preliminary probe, the investigators filed motions with the Saratov Region social services requesting to eliminate reasons and conditions that had contributed to the crime caused by lack of oversight of the family.

The court has sentenced Yefimov to 18 years in a maximum-security correctional facility and Rodina to 4.5 years in a minimum-security correctional facility.