By
Suzannah Hills
13:08 EST, 23 March 2012
|
13:36 EST, 23 March 2012
Paralysed Sergei Zolotovsky, who made legal history by appearing in court in a hospital bed, was found guilty of a double murder
A jilted husband was found guilty of a double murder after making legal history by being tried in his hospital bed in a courtroom.
Paralysed Sergei Zolotovsky, 44, was convicted of killing his ex-wife and mother-in-law by a jury after just half an hour of deliberations.
The Old Bailey heard how Zolotovsky was enraged after his ex-wife Sveltlana Zolotovska, 40, received ‘everything’ in a financial settlement as part of their acrimonious divorce.
Two days after the settlement,
Zolotovsky followed Svetlana as she walked to work in Beckton Park, east
London, in August 2010, before attacking her with a knife and then
cutting her throat.
The
jury was told how Zolotovsky then went to their former marital home in
Newham, east London, and stabbed his former mother-in-law Antonina
Belska, 70, before trying to set fire to the house and cutting his
wrists.
The court heard
how Zolotovsky had written an angry letter, discovered in his north
London flat, stating: ‘I re-did myself everything in that house, all
with my own hands.
‘Then she f***** someone else and everything has been given to her.’
The
Russian-born welder showed no emotion as the verdicts were delivered,
lying propped up in the hospital bed with his arms folded.
Zolotovsky suffered paralysis after two suicide attempts following the murders and was allowed to appear in court in the bed.
Court sketch of Sergei Zolotovsky, lying in a hospital bed inside a courtroom near the jury box at the Old Bailey
It is believed to be the first time that a defendant has appeared in a crown court in a hospital bed.
In one previous case in 2000, Anthony Tobias, who was paralysed from the neck down, was sentenced for fraud offences in his own bedroom because he was in such poor health.
Judge Stephen Kramer QC said that sentencing of Zoloyovsky on April 27 is likely to take place via videolink to avoid the ‘expense and difficulties that there have been in transporting the defendant and accommodating him comfortably here’.
Svetlana Zolotovska, 40, with her mother Antonina Belska, 70, were both murdered by Sergei Zolotovsky
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