Beat children, humiliated and tortured: court handed down a verdict against a pensioner from the Mykolaiv region

Vitovskyi District Court of Mykolaiv Oblast delivered a verdict in a high-profile case concerning a resident of the village of Poligon, who in the summer of 2024 brutally mistreated two underage boys, suspecting them of damaging the crops in his garden. The court found the man guilty of causing bodily harm, torture, and unlawful deprivation of a child’s liberty.

As established during the trial, at about 16:00 on July 23, 2024 the pensioner met the two boys near the garages in the village of Poligon. The man concluded that they had damaged his plot, where watermelons and other vegetables were grown. After that he began to beat the children with his hands, feet, a bag and the strap from it. According to expert conclusions, one boy received at least 12–16 blows, the other — at least 23–25 blows. As a result of the beating, the children sustained numerous bruises, hemorrhages and other minor bodily injuries.

After the beating the man did not stop. According to the case materials, he knocked the boys to the ground and forced them to eat grass growing in the garden. The court concluded that the boys complied with these demands out of fear of new blows and the adult man’s physical superiority. Such actions were qualified as torture, i.e. the intentional infliction of psychological suffering for the purpose of punishment.

Later the accused took one of the boys to an outbuilding near his house and locked him inside. The child spent about 20–30 minutes in the locked shed, having no way to get out on his own. The man sent the other boy to look for girls whom he also suspected of damaging the crop.

At the court hearing the accused fully admitted his guilt. He confirmed that he beat the children, forced them to eat grass and locked one of them in the shed. He explained his behavior by an emotional state caused by spoiled watermelons and other produce in the garden.

The defendant’s wife testified in the case. She said that the man returned home with a bag and the phone of one of the boys and reported that he had caught children who allegedly damaged the plot. It was she who insisted that the child be released from the shed and the belongings returned.

The testimony of a medical worker who arrived at the call after the incident was also examined in the case. She confirmed that the children had numerous injuries on their backs, heads, chests and other parts of the body.

The court took into account that the accused had no prior convictions, is a pensioner, has a Group II disability, is positively characterized at his place of residence and sincerely repented. Mitigating circumstances were the full admission of guilt and remorse.

By the court’s verdict the man was found guilty under Part 1 of Article 125, Part 1 of Article 127 and Part 2 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. For the totality of crimes he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, however he was released from actually serving the sentence with a probationary period of two years. During this time he must remain under the supervision of the probation authority and fulfill the obligations imposed by the court.

In addition, the court partially satisfied the civil claim of the injured party and ordered the man to pay 20,000 hryvnias in moral damages to one of the injured boys. A psychological assessment showed that the child experienced a psychotraumatic event related to physical and psychological violence and requires specialist help.