A Russian mother has been jailed for 18 and a half years for killing two of her sons with a drug once used as ‘rat poison’.
Elena Kordyukova, 39, from Ekaterinburg had also attempted to murder another son the same way, but doctors were able to save his life.
A fourth child, a daughter, had also died young, but forensic scientists were unable to determine her cause of death.
Killer mother: Elena Kordyukova, pictured with her son Mikhail, was found to have poisoned three of her four children, killing two and leaving a third seriously ill
Kordyukova’s childre; sons Ilya, Maxim and Mikhail and daughter Alexandra all suffered from a rare genetic disorder called atypical haemolytic-uremic syndrome.
It causes the formation of blood clots in small blood vessels throughout the body, leading to stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, and death.
Maxim, Mikhail and Alexandra all died under the age of three.
Kordyukova told police she wanted her children to die so she could have more children ‘without health problems’.
The remains of Maxim and Mikhail were exhumed and found to have significant traces of Warfarin, an anticoagulant drug originally developed as a rat poison.
Murderer: Kordyukova, pictured with Mikhail, was accused of also poisoning the couple’s daughter Alexandra, but when her remains were exhumed her body was so decomposed that forensic experts could not determine a cause of death
The Kordyukovs children Ilya, Maxim, Mikhail and Alexandra all suffered from a rare genetic disorder called atypical haemolytic-uremic syndrome
Kordyukova told police she wanted her children to die so she could have more children ‘without health problems’
The drug could have been used to treat their disorder, but is lethal in large doses.
Alexandra’s body was also exhumed but had already decomposed to the point where forensic experts were unable to tell whether she had also been poisoned.
Her eldest son Ilya, eight, was found to have taken 30 doses of the drug administered by his mother while in hospital. He was left in a ‘grave’ condition but survived.
The children’s father Andrey Kordyukov described his wife as a ‘loving mother’ who had tried to save her children.
But a court in Ekaterinburg was told that she had confessed to murder and attempted murder, saying she ‘had tried to cure them, but it was easier to get rid of this burden and try to give birth to new children who were healthy’.
Elena Kordyukova, pictured in court, has been jailed for 18 and a half years for the murders
Defending: Andrey Kordyukov, pictured in court, has defended his wife and says their child who is still alive, Ilya, needs her at home
Psychiatrists found she was ‘completely normal’ and aware of her crimes, the judge was told.
Police say her husband was unaware of her killing spree.
He said Ilya needed his mother at home and they would appeal her sentence.
Added to time she has already been in detention, she will serve a full 20 years, the maximum for a woman in Russia.
‘She is a wonderful mother. I saw how caring she was for the children,’ he said.
He claimed she told him that she had been ‘forced’ to make a confession.