As revenge for a harmless joke, a teenage girl has severely beaten her friend. And while one was bashing the defenseless victim, others were shooting a horrifying video.
Twenty-two schoolchildren gathered in the backyard of a school in the city Yakutsk in Russia’s Far East to witness the fight. And while it was happening, not one of the witnesses who stood there even tried to stop the assailant. Instead they turned on their mobile phone cameras and filmed her in action. When law enforcement officers saw the video, even the most battle-hardened members could not hide their emotions. The following is a transcript of the conversation on the video shot by teenage witnesses and then published on the internet:Mommy! – cries a 10-year-old girl. Why did you crack my head with the bottle? – asks child’s voice on the background. Mommy! –cries the victim, louder.Torturer snatches the girl’s hair and shakes her from side to side. The ensuing scream is interrupted by witnesses’ comments.Don’t kick her, you will be caught! Better make her eat dog sh*t! – suggests a voice.If she does not eat it, she will be scum! – a boy laughs. Come on! Shoot the video! – another urges.Take it! Take it! Eat, right now! – the attacker orders.I can’t. It hurts. It really hurts! – cries the girl and begs to be let go.Turn to a camera and eat! – she was ordered.The victim’s mother says the girls used to be friends and had studied at the same school. They had even lived in the same neighborhood, before the torturer’s family moved to another area. According to classmates, the girls had an argument about six months ago. The beating victim allegedly poured some water on the other girl’s head, an act that inspired the revenge attack. “Just for old offences…,” the attacked girl explained.According to her mother, the parents of those who stood and filmed the girl being beaten told their children to delete the video and keep silent. “I asked one boy who kicked my daughter in the end, why he did this,” tells the mother. “He answered that he wanted to check whether she was still breathing or not.”According to police, such cases can be qualified as criminal according to Russian legislation. However, in this particular case, the teenagers have not reached the age of criminal culpability. They have been put on a probation list with police. There is also a possibility that the teenagers’ parents will have to bear some responsibility for their children’s actions. The family of the beaten girl is planning to seek compensation for moral damages in court.
“Mommy, you will see me in a coffin soon! We are disgraced”
Now the beaten Galya refuses to go to school. She tells her mother that other children point fingers at her. “We went to a psychologist, and we will keep on going,” says Ekaterina. “It helps my little daughter. I tell her that the whole country supports her, that there are people on the internet who are ready to help her.” Her daughter, however, thinks this will not help in the here and now.Straight after this story has become public, bloggers on the internet started to discuss the aid that could be provided to help the traumatized girl to recover. Ekaterina is a simple shop assistant, and she raises Galya alone. She does not have enough money to undertake the task by herself.“We have started a fundraising campaign. We want to send the girl with her mother to a summer resort somewhere on the Black Sea, to Anapa,” says Elena, an activist from the Parents’ Forum.The other issue to be resolved is where the girl will continue her education. Now it is recommended that she study at home, though she is against this measure.“She needs to be urgently transferred to another school, away from this area,” thinks another participant on the Parent’s Forum. “We will strive for this.”Parents’ Forum activists say that Irina, the other young girl who committed such cruelty, obviously needs psychological help.