Galina Kobzeva attacked Nadya Shustova after looking at the child and 'seeing Gollum from The Lord of the Rings laughing'
The babysitter told the court she thought the child was the fictional villain Gollum
A babysitter has been jailed for nine years after claiming she tried to kill her neighbour’s five-year-old daughter because she thought the child was Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
Galina Kobzeva, 69, attacked Nadya Shustova with a knife and hammer before throwing her off a third floor balcony.
The badly injured child was close to death in hospital and survived by a “miracle".
Pensioner Kobzeva, convicted of attempted murder, told a judge during her trial that she checked on Nadya as the girl watched TV and “suddenly saw Gollum from The Lord of the Rings” and the fictional hobbit “stared” at her “loudly laughing”.
Mum Oksana Baleyko with her daughter Nadya
A woman who witnessed part of the incident saw Kobzeva throwing the child from the balcony at a block of flats in the Samara region of Russia - then rescued the girl from the pavement and called an ambulance.
The witness 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 while 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”.
Pensioner Galina Kobzeva, 69, has been jailed
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.
Inside the flat where the girl was attacked
“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 was in hospital for four months after suffering multiple head and body injuries and fractures, and medical documents said she was in a "grave" condition when she arrived.
She suffered concussion and head injuries, and a fractured spine and hip.
Her lung had collapsed and her limbs were covered in cuts and bruises.
Nadya attends a court hearing with her parents
The girl later told how she had screamed for help as she was beaten and stabbed, and claimed no-one came to her aid.
She still requires regular hospital treatment.
Kobzeva has been ordered to pay £8,350 in "moral damages" to her victim.
The girl's 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 directly 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.
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