Anka Mihaylova is going to prison to serve an 8-year sentence for the murder of her adopted daughter Sevda. The decision is final, as is clear from the case published on the website of the Supreme Court of Cassation.
We recall that the child died at the age of one year and 10 months after Mihaylova hit him on the head and caused him a traumatic brain injury. Sevda spent over 2 weeks in a coma before passing away.
Last year, the Plovdiv District Court found Mihaylova guilty of causing death by negligence after intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm. The sentence was signed with the dissenting opinion of junior judge Ivanka Gotseva, who considers the charge of intentional murder, which was brought against the mother by the prosecutor's office, proven.
The adoptive mother will also have to pay 8,645.25 leva for the expert examinations carried out during the case.
Anka Mihaylova could not have children, which was the reason for her separation from her husband. She then filed for adoption and thus took Sevda.
The witnesses questioned in the case claimed that she took very good care of the girl and loved her very much. Late in the evening of September 23, 2022, however, the neighbors heard cries for help and took Anka and Sevda to the Emergency Room. The child had a cracked head.
At the hospital, doctors found many more injuries on his body, including bite marks. Anka's version is that the girl fell out of bed onto the tiled floor. During her first interrogations, she said that she bit the baby to wake him up. However, some of the scars on Sevda's body were old and, according to the forensic pathologist Dr. Pavel Timonov, it was a case of abused child syndrome.