Girl 16 'Eaten with Potatoes

The trial of two Russian men accused of chopping up a 16-year-old girl and eating her with potatoes has been postponed after a juror fell ill looking at prosecution images.

The case was postponed after the juror had to be excused while examining photographs of student Karina Barduchian after her death.

Maxim Golovatskikh and his friend florist Yury Mozhnov, both 20, are accused of drowning Karina Barduchian, in a bath, then carving up her body and serving her meat with potatoes to a lodger.

Before the case was halted, the lodger, Ekaterina Zinovyeva, told the court in St Petersburg they had a party with their Goth friends on the night of the murder in January, 2009.

Karina, who was in love with Golovatskikh, stayed the night, she said.

'Maxim and Karina went to the bathroom together and I went to bed,' she told the court.

'I was sleepy but heard splashes of water and some noise there but was not worried. Sometime later I woke up and decided to check what was going on.

'I went to the bathroom but Yury stopped me on the way and told me to go back to bed.

'They had joked earlier that they could kill Karina but, of course, I couldn't believe for a second that they were serious.'

Next day when she got home from work, Maxim and Yury offered Ekaterina meat and potatoes. She allegedly ate it not knowing where it was from.

The men later hid the rest of Karina's remains in garbage skips, it is alleged.

'They cut up the body of the victim into several pieces, eating some of them and throwing the others into the bin,' said prosecutor Andrei Lavrenko.

'They cooked her meat and served up the meal with potatoes.

'They were interrogated and explained the murder by saying they were desperate to eat.'

The deputy head of St Petersburg criminal investigations Sergei Strelin said: 'They confessed their guilt straight away. They explained they were hungry and drunk.'
The victim had defied her mother in continuing to see Golovatskikh, who was also the lead singer in a minor pop group in Russia's second city.

Her mother Nadya, 45, said: 'Our lives are ruined by Karina's death and the horrible way she died.'

The two accused are due to give evidence when the case resumes this week.