A lifestyle blogging dad confessed to starving his newborn son after trying to prove the baby could survive on sunlight alone.
Their son Kosmos died of “pneumonia and wasting” after Maxim Lyutyi, 44, and his partner Oxana Mironova, 34, failed to adequately feed the child, less than a month old.
The Russian father faces up to eight years in prison and a fine for “intentionally inflicting serious bodily injury.”
He admitted his guilt in his final court appearance before sentencing this week in Sochi.
He had previously tried to blame Mironova, who already received a non-custodial sentence of two years of “correctional labor.”
Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleads guilty to torturing his son by insisting he survive on sunlight instead of food.
Russian father faces up to eight years in prison and a fine for “intentional infliction of serious bodily injury”
Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleads guilty to torturing his son by insisting he survive on sunlight instead of food.
Mironova (right), 34, admitted her guilt and regretted her son’s death. Lyutyi (left) faces a separate trial accused of torturing her newborn baby.
Lyutyi has long campaigned for highly restrictive diets based on raw ingredients.
The court had previously been told that Lyutyi wanted to raise the newborn on prana, a diet in which people go for a long time without food or water and “feed on the sun”.
He was accused of preventing Mironova from breastfeeding the child and described as a “radical raw food fanatic.”
“He wanted to experiment with the child, feeding him exclusively sunshine and then announcing to others that this is how you can eat it,” said a source.
Oxana’s mother, Galina, accused the sinister Lyutyi of leading a “cult.”
“I was against my daughter being in this sect,” he 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. She became increasingly colder towards me…she was her slave.’
Another relative of Mironiva said: ‘Oxana told me she was afraid of him. She wanted to leave him many times, but he stopped her…
‘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 its mother’s milk.”
Lyutyi is seen in a cage in a courtroom in the middle of his trial.
Lifestyle coach Maxim Lyutyi (pictured), 44, wanted to raise the newborn on prana, a diet in which people go a long time without food or water and “feed on the sun,” according to reports. it states.
Mironova has already received a non-custodial sentence of two years of “correctional labor”
Oxana Mironova, 34, convicted by a Russian court of starving her son and sentenced to two years of prison labor.
Guards take Mironova out of the courtroom
Lyutyi had given birth to her son at home and refused to allow Oxana to go to a maternity hospital.
They finally decided to take the emaciated child to the doctor, but the medical staff could do nothing to save the terribly malnourished baby.
Oxana’s mother previously said she sent her daughter money to help her in any way she could, but was unable to get her enough food under the watchful eye of her partner.
‘(Lyutyi) forbade him to feed the child.
‘Oxana told me that she fed the baby secretly, but that she didn’t have enough money, because he didn’t give her anything.
‘I sent money to Oxana for food from my pension. She secretly bought baby food.