A lifestyle blogging father has confessed to starving his newborn son to death after trying to prove the baby could survive on nothing but sunlight.
His child Kosmos died from ‘pneumonia and emaciation’ after Maxim Lyutyi, 44, and partner Oxana Mironova, 34, failed to properly feed the boy, less than one month old.
The Russian father faces up to eight years in jail and a fine for the ‘intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm’.
He admitted his guilt in a final court appearance ahead of sentencing this week in Sochi.
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Previously, he had sought to pin the blame on Mironova who has already received a non-custodial sentence of two years ‘correctional labour’.
Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleads guilty to torturing his son by insisting the child survived on sun-rays instead of food
The Russian father faces up to eight years in jail and a fine for the ‘intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm’
Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleads guilty to torturing his son by insisting the child survived on sun-rays instead of food
Mironova (right), 34, admitted her guilt and repented over the death of her son. Lyutyi (left) faces a separate trial accused of torturing his newborn baby
Lyutyi has long campaigned for highly restrictive diets consisting of raw ingredients
The court was earlier told Lyutyi wanted to raise the newborn on prana-eating – a diet in which people go without food and water for a long time and ‘feed on the sun’.
He was accused of barring Mironova from breastfeeding the child, and was described as a ‘radical raw food fanatic’.
‘He wanted to experiment on the child, feed him purely with the sun, and then advertise it to others that this is how you can eat,’ said one source.
Oxana’s mother Galina accused the sinister Lyutyi of running a ‘sect’.
‘I was against my daughter being in this sect,’ she said.
‘I felt everything, and told her that Maxim was crazy, but she didn’t listen to me.
‘Oxana lived there like a guinea pig. Each time she became colder to me… She was his slave.’
Another relative of Mironiva said: ‘Oxana told me that she was afraid of him. She wanted to leave him many times, but he held her back…
‘He wanted to raise [his son into] a man who only eats the sun.’
Oxana’s cousin Olesya Nikolayeva said: ‘He forced her not to feed the baby. Her boyfriend believed that the sun was feeding the baby.
‘Oxana was secretly trying to breastfeed the baby, but she was very afraid of Maxim. How is it possible to feed the baby with sunlight?
‘A baby needs his mother’s milk.’
Lyutyi is seen in a cage in a courtroom amid his trial
Lifestyle trainer Maxim Lyutyi (pictured), 44, wanted to raise the newborn on prana-eating — a diet in which people go without food and water for a long time and ‘feed on the sun’, it was alleged
Mironova has already received a non-custodial sentence of two years ‘correctional labour’
Oxana Mironova, 34, convicted by a Russian court of starving her child to death, and sentenced to two years correctional labour
Mironova is seen being led out of a courtroom by guards
Lyutyi had delivered his child at home, refusing to let Oxana go to a maternity hospital.
They eventually decided to take the emaciated child to doctors, but medical staff could do nothing to save the horrendously malnourished baby.
Oxana’s mother earlier said how she sent her daughter money to help her in any way she could, but that she could not get the child enough food under the watchful eye of her partner.
‘(Lyutyi) forbade her to feed the child.
‘Oxana told me that she secretly fed the baby, but she didn’t have enough money, because he didn’t give her any.
‘I sent Oxana money for food from my pension. She secretly bought baby food.’