Mother annoyed by 1-year-old son's incessant crying brutally beats up toddler before leaving him alone at home to go on a date
A Ukrainian woman has been accused of brutally beating her newborn son to the point he was barely breathing and then leaving him alone at home to go on a date.
The mother—who has not been identified—lived with her one-year-old son Mykyta and another three-year-old in a shared social hostel in Rivne.
Her neighbors became worried for the infant after they realized he had been left alone, according to the Mirror. They managed to get into her room to check on him and were horrified when they saw his condition. He was in soiled clothes and the physical abuse he had suffered had left him covered in bruises and with a blocked, bloodied nose that meant he had difficulty breathing.
"When we entered the room, we saw Mykyta in his crib," said Tetiana Prymak, a woman who lives next door to the mother. "His right eye was black. His nose was blocked with baked blood and he was barely breathing. We started changing his clothes and saw black bruises all over his body."
She said the child's injuries were so bad that one woman who had come into the room fainted after she saw his condition.
An ambulance was called and Mykyta was rushed to intensive care at the Rivne Regional Children's Hospital, where doctors said it was one of the worst cases of abuse they had ever seen and that the infant was now fighting for his life.
"The boy is in a serious life-threatening condition," said Mykhailo Kulik, the head of the ICU at the hospital. "The boy is in a serious life-threatening condition. We suspect that his skull is fractured but we cannot examine it now."
"I have never seen a baby in such a terribly neglected state. I think his mother has never changed his clothes nor used diapers. His skin is in awful condition."
The mother was taken into custody by the police when she came back to the room, and during an interrogation, reportedly said she left the home and went on a date because she was stressed out due to his incessant crying. She denied touching him and claimed his injuries were caused by a "cold draft."
Her other son was also taken from her to a rehabilitation center because of domestic abuse, with social services now collecting documents and planning to file a lawsuit against her.
"The mother is going to be deprived of parental rights," said Andriy Mishchenia, the head of Rivne Child Protection Service. "The baby boy will be taken away from her and placed into an orphanage."
The mother faces up to five years in prison if found guilty of child abuse.