Galina Kobzeva, 69 was sentenced to eight years in prison for the attempted murder of five-year-old Nadya Shustova
A woman has been jailed for nine years for trying to kill her neighbour’s five year old daughter after she mistook the child for Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
Galina Kobzeva, 69, was convicted of the attempted murder of Nadya Shustova with a knife and hammer before throwing her off a third floor balcony in the Samara region of Russia.
The child was close to death and survived by a ‘miracle’.
Pensioner Kobzeva has been ordered to pay £8,350 in ‘moral damages’ to her victim.
Nadya was in hospital for four months after suffering multiple head and body injuries and fractures.
The girl later told how she had screamed for help as she was beaten and stabbed – but no-one came.
The neighbour had been babysitting the child in her flat when she staged the horrific attack.
A woman passerby saw Kobzeva throwing the child from the balcony – then rescued her from the pavement and called an ambulance.
Nadya (left) suffered a concussion, fractured spine and hip and a collapsed lung after being thrown from the balcony of an apartment in the Samara region of Russia (right)
She said the wild-eyed pensioner had screamed: ‘Don’t touch her! She must die! There is a demon inside her, a devil!’
In court Kobzeva told the judge that she had been drinking beer at the same time as taking medication when she attacked the child.
She had gone to check on Nadya who was watching TV and ‘suddenly saw Gollum from The Lord of the Rings’ who ‘stared’ at her ‘loudly laughing’.
Oksana Baleyko with her daughter Nadya, who was thrown from a balcony by her babysitter in Russia
She left the room fearing a delusion, drank more beer, then returned and ‘once again saw a laughing monster from the saga of the British writer’.
The girl’s mother Oksana Baleyko, 25, said: ‘She decided to fight this “monster”.
‘She beat and kicked Nadya and finally grabbed a hammer from the balcony.’
Kobzeva hit the girl repeatedly over the head.
‘The woman said she remembers nothing until she woke up only next day when she was already in jail.’
Nadya told her mother that the neighbour tried to strangle her.
‘Then Galina beat Nadya’s head against the floor, and grabbed a hammer and struck her on the head,’ said Oksana.
‘Doctors told us that she used a knife too because Nadya’s head was covered with stabs and cuts.
‘Then she tried to push Nadya out of the window but my daughter actively resisted and shouted.
‘Galina then beat her against a window sill and finally pushed her down from the balcony…’
Nadya’s parents Mikhail Shustov and Oksana Baleyko, who trusted their ‘friendly’ neighbour to look after their daughter on the night she tried to murder her
Oksana Baleyko with her daughter Nadya. A witness said Kobzeva screamed: ‘Don’t touch her! She must die! There is a demon inside her, a devil!’ after she threw the child from her third-floor balcony
Medical documents highlighted in court show Nadya was in a ‘grave’ condition when she came to hospital.
She suffered concussion and head injuries including multiple cuts and bruises.
She had a fractured spine and hip.
Her lung had collapsed and her limbs were covered in cuts and bruises.
She still requires regular hospital treatment.
Kobzeva, who was babysitting Nadya (pictured), had been drinking beer while on medication. She claimed she ‘suddenly saw Gollum from The Lord of the Rings’ who ‘stared’ at her ‘loudly laughing’
Her mother said the moral damages should have been higher but she was satisfied with the nine year sentence which is followed by a year when the pensioner is forbidden from leaving her home city.
Her mother and father, Mikhail Shustov, had earlier appealed direct to President Vladimir Putin alleging repeated delays in the case.
Oksana said she ‘trusted’ the neighbour before the attack and the woman was always ‘friendly’ with Nadya.
Kobzeva was deemed mentally fit to stand trial.