A woman from Russia has been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor after she starved her 5-month-old baby to death during a two week party binge.
Alena Itapova, 19, who has been nicknamed ‘Monster Mum’ in Russian media for letting baby Veronika die, tried to blame her parents during appeals but ultimately was found guilty. Russian judges refused her appeal and instead increased her sentence. Itapova claimed the baby’s death was her parents’ fault for not teaching her how to properly raise a baby.
During a trial last year, Itapova admitted to leaving her baby alone in her apartment while she disappeared for two weeks. She found her daughter dead when she returned.
The London Daily Mail reports:
Video footage of her courtroom appearance showed the crop-haired teenager locked inside a bulletproof dock by guards as she gave her evidence.
She told the sentence hearing: ‘I really regret what I did. I did not want that to happen. I realise what I have done.’
Ipatova also attempted to blame her parents for mistreating her when she was a child, and not teaching her how to properly take care of her daughter.
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Her lawyer Oleg Kiyashko claimed she had asked the child’s father to help look after their daughter.
He claimed: ‘Yes, she left the child at times. Although she left her, sometimes she came back in the morning or the father was at home, so he could still look after the girl.’
At the time, judges rejected a defence plea to alter her charge from the murder of a minor with cruelty to causing death by negligence and sentenced her to 10 years hard labour.
