Lifestyle blogger sentenced to eight years in prison for starving her newborn son to death after demanding the child live on a ‘diet’ of SOLSYS instead of food and milk
A lifestyle blogger father has been jailed for eight years for causing the death of his newborn son by demanding he live on sunlight instead of food and milk.
Maxim Lyutyi, 44, and his partner Oxana Mironova, 34, failed to properly feed their baby Cosmos, who died of ‘pneumonia and emaciation’ when he was less than a month old.
The Russian father must serve his sentence in a high-security penal colony.
He took the baby away from his mother for a day at a time ‘and doused him with cold water to harden him,’ the Mash news outlet reported.
‘The little body could not withstand the abuse: exhaustion developed and breathing problems appeared. But even in this condition the child was not shown to doctors.’
Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleads guilty to torturing his son by insisting the child survived on sunlight instead of food
The Russian father will serve his eight-year sentence in a high-security penal colony
Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleads guilty to torturing his son by insisting the child survived on sunlight instead of food
Mironova (right), 34, admitted her guilt and repented over her son’s death. Lyutyi (left) faces a separate trial accused of torturing her newborn baby
Lyutyi has long fought for very restrictive diets consisting of raw materials
Lyutyi caused ‘intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm’ to Cosmos by insisting that the baby be nourished mainly by sunlight, the court in Sochi heard.
He admitted his guilt at a court hearing last week after earlier trying to blame Mironova, who has already received a custodial sentence of two years of “correctional work”.
He had claimed that she had an iron deficiency which caused the death of the three and a half kilo baby.
Lyutyi told the court he was guilty of ‘negligence’. “I admit my guilt,” he said. ‘If I knew that my son was born prematurely, that his mother had contraindications for pregnancy, then at the first symptoms of the child’s illness.
‘I would immediately contact a hospital, regardless of the mother’s wishes and beliefs…’
He urged prospective partners to take care of their health before conception and pay more attention to the baby than he had done.
On video, he said: ‘Your Honor, Honorable Court, I still insist (I did not deliberately kill my child…).
“This is a pure crime of negligence … with no such intent. I emphasize once again that I loved my son, looked after him.’
Lyutyi had been in custody for a year, during which he was found to be eating meat – pasta with stew – and ignoring his own philosophy.
The court was previously told that Lyutyi wanted to raise the newborn on prana eating – a diet where people go without food and water for long periods of time and ‘feed on the sun’.
He was accused of preventing Mironova from breastfeeding the child and was described as a ‘radical raw food fanatic’.
“He wanted to experiment with the child, feed it exclusively on the sun and then advertise it to others that this is how you can eat,” a source said.
A court official said Lyutyi was also fined £860.
Oxana’s mother Galina accused the sinister Lyutyi of running a ‘cult’.
Lyutyi is seen in a cage in a courtroom in the middle of his trial
Lifestyle coach Maxim Lyutyi (pictured), 44, wanted to bring up the newborn on prana eating – a diet where people go without food and water for long periods of time and ‘feed off the sun’, it was claimed
Mironova has already received a custodial sentence of two years of “correctional work”
Oxana Mironova, 34, convicted by a Russian court of starving her child to death and sentenced to two years in prison.
Mironova is seen being led out of a courtroom by guards
“I was against my daughter being in this sect,” she said. I felt everything and told her that Maxim was crazy, but she didn’t listen to me. Oxana lived there like a guinea pig. Every time she grew colder to me… She was his slave.’
Another relative of Mironiva said: ‘Oxana told me she was afraid of him. She wanted to leave him many times, but he held her back… He wanted to raise (his son to) a man who eats only the sun.’
Oxana’s cousin Olesya Nikolayeva said: ‘He forced her not to feed the child. Her lover believed that the sun nourished the child.
‘Oxana secretly tried to breastfeed the baby, but she was very afraid of Maxim. How is it possible to feed the baby with sunlight? A baby needs its mother’s milk.’
Lyutyi had given birth to her child at home and refused to let Oxana go to a maternity hospital.
They finally decided to take the emaciated child to doctors, but the medical staff could do nothing to save the terribly malnourished baby.
Oxana’s mother has previously told how she sent her daughter money to help her in any way she could, but that she could not get the child enough food under the watchful eye of her partner.
‘(Lyutyi) forbade her to feed the child. Oxana told me that she secretly fed the baby, but she did not have enough money because he did not give her any.
‘I sent Oxana money for food from my pension. She secretly bought baby food.’