Woman who starved 3-year-old while she partied for a week has been jailed for 13-years

A young mother decided to leave her three-year-old child alone without food, water, and electricity for a week. Initially, Maria Plenkina claimed that she had not wished to kill her child. She later confessed to the cruel murder of Kristina. The court gave her a prison sentence which will be followed by house arrest. A campaign group believes that the sentence is too lenient for the extremely horrifying way in which the mother sentenced her child to a slow death.

Maria left Kristina alone in a flat in Kirov, Russia as she went away on February 13, 2019. The monstrous mother lied to her friend that Kristina was with a friend while she was away. She also lied to her mother, Irina Plenkina, about the child's wellbeing. In reality, she had left meagre amounts of food in a cold, dark apartment for the slowly dying child.

Over the week, Maria went bar hopping and partying while being funded by her friend. She told the court that she was also looking for a job during her week away. Kristina, locked in the trash-covered apartment was slowly starving to death. She ate whatever her mother had left her before trying to eat washing powder.

Irina went to the flat with a birthday gift for the child only to discover her dead. Only after her mother gave her the news that her daughter had died, Maria decided to come back from her party binge. Even before the child was abandoned by her mother, she weighed around 17lb, the Daily Mail reported, which is nearly half of what a three-year-old should weigh.

Maria was deemed psychologically fit for a trial after being examined by psychiatrists. The court sentenced Maria to 13-years in a prison colony. After the prison sentence, she will be under house arrest for one more year.

A campaign group named after Kristina claims that the punishment is not enough. A member of the group stated that by the time Maria is released from prison, she can have another child who might face the same torture as Kristina. The campaigners want harsher laws to prevent careless parents from injuring or killing their children.