Hermit gouged out a man’s eyes and stabbed him 29 times following a fight at a nature reserve in Russia
- Artur Khanukayev killed a man, 40, and used a knife to cut out his victim’s eyes
- He first stabbed victim 29 times in head, neck, chest, abdomen and on the arms
- He was sentenced to serve eight years in strict regime prison colony for murder
A hermit who gouged a man’s eyes after stabbing him 29 times has been jailed for murder in Russia.
Artur Khanukayev, 36, killed the man and used a knife to cut out his victim’s eyeballs.
When police searched the ‘hovel’ where he lived, they found a pile of magazines in which the eyes of pictured celebrities had been carefully cut out.
Artur Khanukayev (pictured), a 36-year-old hermit, killed a man and used a knife to cut out his victim’s eyes
Khanukayev lived as a recluse in a hut he made himself in Yuntolovsky nature reserve in St Petersburg (pictured)
The ‘maniac’ (pictured) was convicted of killing a 40-year-old man named only Bobrov following a fight
Khanukayev was sentenced to serve eight years in a strict regime prison colony.
The recluse lived in a hut he made himself in Yuntolovsky nature reserve in St Petersburg, a court heard.
He was convicted of killing a 40-year-old man named only Bobrov following a fight in the reserve.
Khanukayev first beat the man with a wooden stick before he stabbed the victim 29 times in the head, neck, chest, abdomen and on the right wrist and forearm, according to evidence in his trial.
He was arrested after he was caught wearing the dead man’s jacket. When police searched the ‘hovel’ where he lived, they found a pile of magazines with the eyes of celebrities cut out
The eyes of the victim were gouged out with a knife, the judge was told.
The victim was tattooed with the words: ‘So few roads have been walked, so many mistakes were made.’
An identikit of a suspect was issued based on testimony of homeless men who had been drinking with the victim.
Khanukayev was detained after he was found to be wearing the jacket of the man he killed.
Khanukayev was convicted of murder and sentenced to serve eight years in a strict regime prison colony
Khanukayev denied extracting the eyes of his victim but police found a pile of magazines with the eyes of pictured celebrities had been painstakingly cut out.
The identities of the celebrities in magazines whose eyes were cut out was not disclosed, nor was it clear if they were Russian or Western or both.
No pictures of the magazines were released.
Police are running checks for similar unsolved crimes in other regions.