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Borisov in court, Wednesday
Photo: Yaron Brener

Mother who drowned toddler gets 8 years

Tel Aviv District Court sentences Olga Borisov, convicted of killing her four-year-old son Alon at a Bat Yam beach, to eight years in jail and eight months probation. Judge: Child was entitled to grow up

The Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday sentenced Olga Borisov, who was convicted of drowning her four-year-old son Alon at a Bat Yam beach in August 2008, to eight years in jail and eight months probation.

 

The judges wrote in the sentence, "The child was entitled to live. His was not killed by a stranger, but by his own mother."

 

The sentence was the maximum penalty demanded by the State Prosecutor's Office as part of a plea bargain signed with Borisov. Her husband, who asked the court to take her harsh emotional state into consideration, appeared shocked by the severe sentence.

 

Justice Nurit Ahituv wrote that "the child was entitled to live, and as any human being he had the right to grow up and become an adult, but the same mother who gave him his life is the one who sentenced him to demise. This child's blood cries out from the sea in which he took his last breath. His cry for help must be sounded in the verdict."


Olga Borisov (Photo: Yaron Brener)

 

The judges stressed that they had many deliberations on whether to accept the plea bargain, "in light of the inherent gravity in taking a human life, and all the more so with a young child who has only taken his first steps in life. He was not killed by a stranger, but by his own mother.

 

"However, after reviewing the ruling, as presented here, we decided, under these case's unusual circumstances, to adopt the plea bargain the sides agreed on."

 

The amended indictment filed against the mother, in accordance with the plea bargain, revealed that Borisov had travelled to the beach with her son with the aim of ending both their lives. At 1 am she took her sleeping son and entered the water, where she drowned him.

 

Residents who spotted the incident alerted the police, while searching for the child in the water. The boy was located and pulled out of the water several minutes later, but he was pronounced dead by the rescue forces.

 

Borisov told the judges during a hearing held several weeks ago, "I miss my son. The only thing keeping me going is my husband."

 

Her husband, Ilan Yehuda, expressed remorse in court: "I didn't understand her distress. I didn’t know how depressed and sick she was. I didn’t listen to her. I shouted at her and the situation only became worse. I know what a dedicated mother she was and how much she loved Alon and misses him."

 

The prosecutor, Attorney Tony Goldberg, sais the State Prosecutor's Office decided to sign a plea bargain with Borisov after realizing that her emotional state before the act was very difficult and that she had a distorted perception of her four-year-old son's condition.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.09.09, 10:47
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