„I will always remember that day. A three-hour beating. That's all I was telling him – I'm dying. And he answered - die, die! I looked at the children and said to myself “the end is coming, what about my children”? The police didn't say they were going to arrest my husband, they talked as if they were friends.
This is the short version of an “near murder” in Chelopech. Rosa knows she is living a second life. With an ovary removed, two broken arms and a busted mouth.
They have been together with the abuser for eight years. She ran away and came back because of the children. And it tells another story about domestic violence, but at the same time a story like no other.
„He came home. He looked at me. And he smashed my mouth with the phone. I just didn't understand what happened, I asked why he was hitting me. He continued to beat me on the face and head. And when there was nothing left of the phone, he threw it away. He knocked me to the ground and started kicking me on the back, stomach, and other places. This was happening in front of the children,”, says Rosa.
The nightmare continues when he takes her to a can in the yard. And he started to plunge her head inside, to drown her with the words “I will kill you this time”.
Beating because of jealousy, because of suspicion that she cheated. A little later he will find out that Rosa is not to blame for anything, but she will already be in hospital.
„He found a board and hit my head with it. She broke in two. He also found a hose, not very big, he hit me 3-4 times with it. At that moment, just turning around, there was a large shovel next to him. He wanted to hit me on the head with it, but I put my hands and he hit me on the hands with it very hard. Then he repeated on my legs because I was squatting. I again put my hands, hit, hit and threw her out. He took me by the hands and took me up to the terrace and made me sit down. There was a whip with which they manage the animals. It started with him forcing my hands and started insulting me. I pray to him and only say that he will understand that I am not guilty. He opened a beer. And sat down. I was already with broken arms. He played music on the speakers and talked to friends on the phone about going out. He went inside, took a shower, got dressed, and the children inside with me, all three... they are looking at me and crying”, the woman remembers the terrifying moment.
With the help of her children, she stands up, takes two steps and passes out.
So far the story is frightening. From here on it becomes absurd. Rosa is alive because of her neighbor, who called 112. The police came to the address with the ambulance.
The first team of police officers who find no reason to arrest the abuser. A second team of police officers see Rosa– in the emergency room in Pirdop. And they take... again nothing.
And there, in front of the emergency room in Pirdop, hours after he brutally beat her, her husband takes a video. In addition to posing next to the ambulance at that moment, he decided to upload the video with his face on TikTok that very evening. And Rosa's condition worsened to such an extent that she was advised to go to another hospital - in Panagyurishte. And since the police don't see why they should detain her husband, Rosa has no choice but to travel to the hospital with him again. He even tells her that nothing will be done to him.
„I have connections, things won't work out, that's what he told me. And it hit me again. I remained silent. And she told me only this: You will lie that you were dead drunk and you beat yourself up. I just looked at him and fainted at the entrance. He picked me up, sat me down and told me not to pretend,”, Rosa shared.
They see her from the hospital in Panagyurishte and do not believe the version about the fall down the stairs. Call the police immediately. Third team of police officers. This time they arrest the abuser, but not for the beating. He did not have an ID card with him. They release him in a few hours.
In response to Nova TV's inquiry, the Ministry of the Interior replied that the man was detained not for 2, but for 72 hours. This official information, however, diverges from Rosa's memories, who claims that her husband appeared at the hospital the very next morning and told her that he knew she was not guilty.
And why the previous two police teams – in Rosa's home and in the hospital in Pirdop they did not react – the police explain as follows: “Police officers were sent to the address. Statements were taken from the man and the woman, who categorically refused to file an official report/complaint. The man was issued a warning protocol.
A check by Nova TV established that the man was known to the Ministry of Internal Affairs even before this incident. Rosa has filed a harassment complaint before. How many times did she file reports, what happened after them – all this information should be available to every police officer to be able to assess how high the risk is and how to respond. There should already be a national information system to guide the police, but there is none, never mind that it was promised by law. We are looking for the answer in the Council of Ministers, with the people who work on this system.
„The head of the department of the “Prevention and protection from domestic violence” did not make the right decision. There were suspicions of corrupt practices. I could not report them because disciplinary proceedings against these two persons are currently underway. "Maybe at a later stage we will be able to tell more," explained Emilia Alexandrova, an expert from the "Prevention and protection from domestic violence" department. in MS.
There is an opinion circulating on the Internet that this system is already being worked on. Alexandrova confirms, but clarifies that everything is happening very slowly. He predicts that this time next year – the system will perhaps be in almost complete form.
And Rosa continues to recover. “I was operated on, one of my ovaries had to be removed. Then I had surgery on both hands, I have implants and splints. But what it did to my children – that hurts me the most. Not my pains. I will fight to the end to take parental rights, to have no contact with my children and I will take care of them myself“, the woman vows.
Her children are placed in a home. Her husband is in custody. He is hiding his face in one of the parental rights cases.
The prosecutor's office has started an investigation. It has been going on for over a month. Expertises, interrogations and verdict are awaited. According to the doctors, after the removal of the ovary, Rosa will no longer be able to have children. And the experts still cannot judge whether it is a light, medium or severe bodily injury.