A bride has been left with horrific injuries after her boyfriend nailed her hands and feet to a wooden board in a horrific “crucifixion” before setting her on fire.
Russian Oksana Kuzmenko, 40, told a court how her lover had arranged the crucifixion before dousing her body in petrol and setting it alight after she ended their relationship.
The recruitment director suffered life-changing injuries after being ‘lit up like a candle’, and her appearance was completely changed following brutal torture at the hands of her boyfriend.
Oleg Shchegolikhin, a 33-year-old welder, was jailed for 12 years in a strict penal colony by a Russian court for attempted murder with “extreme cruelty” but has volunteered to fight for Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraineso it is unlikely that he will spend much time in jail.
The victim bravely testified against the cruel Shchegolikhin in court about how he threatened to kill her at the car repair shop where she worked in Yekaterinburg, eastern Russia.
Oksana Kuzmenko, 40, was seriously injured after her boyfriend “crucified” her, doused her with petrol and set her on fire in October last year.
Following the attack, he was diagnosed with severe burns to his upper extremities, upper respiratory tract, neck, face and buttocks.
Oleg Shchegolikhin, 33, was jailed for 12 years following the brutal torture he inflicted on his girlfriend.
Recalling the chilling experience that took place in October, Kuzmenko said: ‘He took off my boots, grabbed my left leg and hammered a nail into it.
“And on my right leg he took something like a corkscrew and twisted this sharp object into my right leg,” he continued.
As Shchegolikhin carried out his vile “crucifixion,” he had been threatening to kill his girlfriend as she lay helpless nailed to a wooden board.
“He took out a cigarette and a lighter and poured gasoline on it, so I lit up like a candle,” she said.
The welder watched his girlfriend burn alive while smoking her cigarette, before grabbing a fire extinguisher and putting out the flames.
But it was too late and the serious damage had already been done.
After Kuzmenko was freed from the flames, Shchegolikhin ripped off the burned skin from his girlfriend’s right hand, leaving her with scars that she will live with for the rest of her life.
He then ordered her to take him to the city of Asbest, but she feared that he would kill her and hide her body in a forest during the journey.
The brave and injured Kuzmenko then decided to deliberately crash her car into another vehicle, an action that probably saved her life, as Shchegolikhin abandoned her and fled the scene when the police arrived.
Addressing a court, Kuzmenko recounted the horrific attack in which she was injured in her right leg with a corkscrew.
Pictured: Kuzmenko before her boyfriend violently attacked her last year.
Torturer Shchegolikhin hopes to escape the strict prison sentence he was sentenced to by volunteering to fight for Russia against Ukraine.
After the attack, Shchegolikhin ordered his girlfriend to take him to Asbest before he was captured by the police.
Shchegolikhin’s lawyer, Olga Polishchuk, confirmed that they will appeal the verdict and that he will go on to fight in the war in Ukraine.
Shchegolikhin (left) had launched his brutal attack on Kuzmenko after she ended their relationship. Shchegolikhin had concealed his past as a convict with previous convictions for kidnapping, robbery, assault and drunk driving, Kuzmenko told the court.
Kuzmenko told officers about the ordeal she had endured, which she told the court was followed by an hour-long beating by her boyfriend.
Police discovered the woman in “a terrible condition,” the court heard, and she was later diagnosed with severe burns to the upper extremities, upper respiratory tract, neck, face, and buttocks.
He had deep wounds to his limbs caused by the nail and corkscrew and was in a “serious” condition in hospital.
Shchegolikhin had concealed his past as a convicted felon with previous convictions for kidnapping, robbery, assault and drunk driving, Kuzmenko told the court.
His lawyer, Olga Polishchuk, said after the trial that she would appeal because he “never intended to kill her” when he nailed her to a board and set her on fire.
She said: ‘During interrogation and in court he always said: ‘I loved her’.
Shchegolikhin is prepared to appeal the attempted murder conviction, but in the meantime has requested a plan that would allow him to receive a pardon from Putin after serving six months in his war.
“He’s going to war,” he said.
‘He wrote a statement to the Russian military in October.
“If I participated in the war I could make up for it,” he added.
