At the neighbors from above

Home violence occurs behind closed doors, but next to us: friends, relatives, acquaintances or a prosperous family of neighbors from above

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On January of January 2018, 36-year-old Anna Artamonova from the village of Gluboya near Moscow had a regular New Year holiday day-she spent the evening with her husband and son, went to bed at two in the morning. But she soon woke up: in the silence of the panel house, female sobs were clearly heard, and then the dog began to bark loudly. In their apartment, neighboring scandals were often heard, so Anna was not surprised. Everything died down quickly, and she fell asleep again. And in the morning, the police called the door: a murder occurred in the apartment with a floor above.

"I have no complaints"

Elena Verba and Sergey Gusyatnikov were not much different from other families - a little son, a two -room apartment in a mortgage in the suburbs, in the summer a vacation in Sochi or parents in the country.

The 38-year-old Gusyatnikov served in the police, and Elena worked in the automobile center. Close do not remember that husband and wife often quarrel. But in 2017, something changed-the mother of Elena, Anna Verba, says that Sergey began to be jealous of Elena for no reason. On the fifth of August, when they were outside the city, her husband invited her to go to pick mushrooms on the sidelines of the road. There, Sergei threw his wife to the ground and took out a knife. Elena escaped, and then, at the family council, Gusyatnikov convinced them that he did this so that his wife fell in love with him again, complained that she began to treat him differently. Elena then damaged her knee, went to the emergency room, where she said that she had baked her leg because her husband attacked her.

Anna Verba, Mom Elena photo: Stanislav Novgorodtseva for TD

After that, the district police officer called her. He explained that the case is better to hush up. “Then she was told that your husband works in the organs, he may have problems, their family will be registered in guardianship, his son’s service in the police, if he wants to go there in the future, will also be closed. In general, you do not need it, ”recalls Anna Verba. The district police officer in the Kryukovo district, according to Elena, wrote down that she "slipped and fell" and "has no complaints to anyone." After this incident, Elena firmly decided to divorce, and she and her husband began to live in different rooms.

Wash your hands

On January five, police lieutenant Alexei Roldugin came to the service and began to prepare for the shift. An hour later he saw that Gusyatnikov arrived-the men greeted, Roldugin did not know Sergey well, but noticed that he was somehow strangely nervous. “Late,” he explained. “I’ll go to the toilet to wash my hands.” Roldugin was surprised, thought that Gusyatnikov’s hands were so clean, and asked where he got dirty.

Two hours later, the son called Sergey and asked to come: at home my mother cut a lot. Then the seven -year -old Dima told his grandmother, Anna Verb that he saw his mother lay on the bed all in the blood with open eyes. Dima called his mother, but she did not answer.

Roldugin volunteered to go home with Sergey - he was not in himself, and he did not dare to let him go. In Gusyatnikov’s car, Alexei noticed that the rug was stained with blood.

Photo of the deceased daughter in Anna Verba's room : Stanislav Novgorodtsev for TD

Before applying 57 stab wounds to his wife, Gusyatnikov spent a regular day with his son: they woke up, had breakfast, Sergey helped the child to make a school task for the holidays, then they went to visit Mother Sergei, along the way, walked in the park. In the evening, Gusyatnikov cooked Dima porridge, fed him, did household chores, turned on Harry Potter's son and sat down with him to watch a movie. Later, Sergei, according to him, went for a walk with the dog and saw that an unfamiliar car was driving around the courtyard, his wife was sitting in the front seat, and some man was driving.

They have long lived in different rooms, Elena spoke about divorce all the time, but Sergei, under various pretexts, pulled this decision: he said that it would be necessary to share property, mortgage apartment, cars and that the divorce would inevitably affect his son. Anna Verba says that Sergei even forced Elena to take a loan: “They say, we will get divorced, share everything, and I want a car like yours.” Elena agreed.

That night, the Gusyatnikov got up at four in the morning, Elena was not yet at home. He went to the bathroom, washed, dressed and heard that his wife had returned. Lawyers clarify that this and subsequent events are known only from the words of Sergei, and his objectivity causes strong doubts. Elena and Sergey began to swear, discuss the divorce with whom the child would remain. The woman went to her room and lay down on the bed. “When she said that she no longer wants to have anything to have in common with me and pick up her son, I felt an acute attack of aggression, despair and anger,” Sergey showed during interrogation.

Then Gusyatnikov approached the closet with white doors, which stood at the entrance to the room. There, among the stacks with things, transparent plastic boxes, papers and other household trifles, a knife lay. Gusyatnikov approached his wife lying on the bed. The light in the room was turned off, and Sergey saw only the silhouette of a woman. “She immediately understood everything,” he recalled at the investigative experiment.

Gusyatnikov hit his wife with a knife, she began to scream, close her arms and legs. The man closed his mouth and noticed that she was already weakening. When Gusyatnikov stopped, Elena was lying on the bed without moving. “At the same moment, I realized that I had killed, and was very scared,” Sergey showed during interrogation. He tried to stop blood, put an elastic bandage to his wife’s neck. The fabric was saturated with blood in a few seconds. Burgundy stains spread along bedding with pink flamingos.

Anna photo: Stanislav Novgorodtseva for TD

Gusyatnikov did not know what to do. At first he ran out of the house, ran to a stream nearby, threw his wife’s phone into the water. Then he returned home, went to his son. He woke up, but his father reassured him, and Dima fell asleep again. He was afraid to go into the room to the dead wife of the goose. He packed things, took a bag, clean interchangeable clothes and got into the car. Halfway to Moscow, Sergei looked in the rearview mirror and saw that his whole face was soaked in blood. He got out of the car, washed himself with antifreeze, burned bloodied clothes on the side of the road and went on to work. At nine in the morning, Dima, waking up, went to his mother’s room and immediately called his father.

Victim?

During the investigation in the case of Gusyatnikov and in the trial, the interests of the victims of Anna Verba and the minor Dima were defended by lawyer Oleg Nabatov, who was attracted to the consortium of female non -governmental associations. According to Nabatov, this business has become a characteristic example illustrating the law enforcement in the field of domestic violence. “Initially, the investigator did not want to recognize Dima, the common son of Elena and Sergey, the victim. In our opinion, this is absurd: a child was killed in a child, but he is not a victim. We managed to achieve the opposite, but the court of first instance pronounced the verdict, recognizing the presence of a minor child by the mitigating circumstance of Gusyatnikov. In our opinion, when the crime was committed against the child himself, to recognize him as a mitigating circumstance and on the basis of this to pass out a softer sentence - this is simply legal idiocy.

Anna photo: Stanislav Novgorodtseva for TD

In addition, during the investigation, we insisted on the qualifications of crimes under Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder committed with particular cruelty): Gusyatnikov inflicted more than 50 stab wounds on its victim, the examination established that most of them were applied during his lifetime. In the court of first instance, we also insisted on retraining the case, but were not heard by the judge. ”

It is possible that in the court of the first instance of the mother of the murdered Elena, this would not have been possible to achieve. The services of a private practice lawyer are expensive because they cost hundreds of hours of work, many months of campaigns in the courts, police and other law enforcement agencies.

Fortunately, there is a consortium of female non -governmental associations that will provide women and children who have become victims of domestic violence, lawyer.

According to the results of the court, the defense of Anna Verba and the minor Dima appealed: they did not agree with the term, qualification and the size of moral compensation. During the debate in the Moscow Regional Court of Nabatov, speaking, it gives an example of the decision of the plenums of the Supreme Court, indicates that, according to the law, the judge, making a decision on the amount of compensation, should be guided by the “conscience”. The presiding judge listens to him slightly condescendingly, Gusyatnikov in his speech asks for forgiveness, but at the same time says that he was “a small man, they said - he left for the zone,” and complains that the investigation was biased.

Anna photo: Stanislav Novgorodtseva for TD

The Moscow Regional Court increased compensation to 2 million rubles and increased Gusyatnikov a term of up to ten years. Nabatov does not exclude that they will continue to appeal the verdict in order to achieve adequate qualifications.

Now the consortium also supports the Khachaturian sisters.

Please support the work of lawyers who protect the victims of domestic violence. In addition to us, there seems to be no one, because our state is only decriminalized by the family.