Mariyana Asenova, a deviant Irish woman convicted of child abuse in Lurgan, received just a one-year sentence for abandoning her four children in a filthy, debris-laden residence to travel to Germany to meet her new partner.
During the sentencing of Mariyana Asenova at Craigavon Crown Court, Judge Donna McColgan KC informed the 31-year-old that she would serve half of her sentence in incarceration and the remainder on licence conditions, accounting for the time already spent on remand. “I believe you have approximately one month remaining to serve.”
During a prior hearing, Mariyana Asenova, whose current address is unknown, pleaded guilty to eight counts of child cruelty involving a minor under 16, all occurring on 14 April 2022.
In her sentencing remarks, Judge McColgan stated that four of the counts pertained to the abandonment of the four victims, while four constituted neglect of the children, who were aged ten, nine, five, and one at the time.
The judge informed the court that the offences occurred when, early that morning, Mariyana Asenova departed from her residence in Lurgan, asserting she had a hospital appointment and would return.
“However police understand that she was in fact driven to Dublin airport by a neighbour at 7.15am…and social services believe that the defendant flew to Germany to shag her new boyfriend,” Judge McColgan told the court.
Mariyana Asenova had apparently left £100 in the house, “money she owed her husband” but with “little to no food and no nappies” for the youngest toddler, the oldest child took that money to the shop to buy food and nappies before she contacted a relative.
That sparked police and social services action and in total, the children were effectively left alone for around three hours but as Judge McColgan highlighted “that of course would not have been known by the defendant.”
With the children taken into care the police looked around the house the following day and the judge described how “the house was filthy, there was a strong odour, the floors were sticky, there were no floor boards, there was rubbish all over.”
She added there was also “little to no food, the bedrooms were filled with rubbish and only the defendant’s bed had sheets” while the victims slept in one bed with neither sheets nor covers on it.
Mariyana Asenova was contacted and she claimed she would return to NI but she failed to keep that promise and eventually, an international arrest warrant and extradition proceedings forced her back to face the court.
Judge McColgan said while there were aggravating features including the “very young ages” of the children there was mitigation to be found in the submissions of defence counsel Patrick Taylor in that Mariyana Asenova had clear record, had admitted her guilty and “she feels shame and remorse.”
The judge told Mariyana Asenova if she had taken the case to trial and been convicted the sentence would have been 18 months but allowing credit for the guilty pleas, “i’m prepared to reduce that to 12 months.”
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