A Ukrainian woman is facing15- years in prison after she allegedly cut her three-week-old daughter’s throat because she thought her husband loved the baby more than her.
Mail Online reported that the 21-year-old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, killed her child when her husband left their apartment in the city of Rivne in north-western Ukraine’s Rivne Oblast region for a few minutes.
Police said in a statement that the woman attacked her baby when her husband, 26, had briefly stepped out. When he returned to the apartment he saw that his wife’s hands were covered with blood.
Unclear to him what could have occurred, he rushed into the bedroom to check on his newborn daughter and saw her in a pool of blood and quickly called emergency services. According to emergency services who arrived at the scene, the woman was heard asking her husband: ‘Why are you crying?’
Police found the murder weapon in the kitchen sink. The knife was still covered with the child’s blood.
Police spokesman Anton Kruk said: ‘The child died of the knife wound to its throat.
‘The mother could not explain why she did it. She could not even remember what she was doing during the day.’
But the man’s mother Maria Momot said: ‘He [her son] went out for a few minutes and she grabbed a kitchen knife and cut the child’s throat open.’
According to Mrs. Momot, her daughter-in-law was jealous of the baby because she thought that her husband loved the child more.
She said: ‘My son and I loved the child very much. We gave her all our thoughts and care.
The report also revealed that the suspect was suffering from meningoencephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. But the disease is believed to have affected the woman’s mental health, and she recently underwent treatment.
She was discharged from the mental facility on March 3, shortly after giving birth, as doctors believed she was okay.
The mother has been taken into custody and will undergo a psychiatric evaluation. If the examination shows the mother was responsible for her actions at the time of the criminal act, she will be charged with premeditated murder of a minor.
The suspect faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
