A 22-year-old man learned his fate in a Scottish courtroom after a neighborhood encounter involving sexual remarks directed at children escalated into a physical assault — and his own sister was already on record admitting she played a violent role in the melee.
Ilia Belov stood convicted after a Dundee sheriff rejected his account of events wholesale, finding beyond reasonable doubt that everything that followed on those streets in Lochee traced directly back to words Belov himself chose to say to a group of minors.
The girls were between 12 and 14 years old.
Belov’s sister, Nadjedzha Belova, 20, did not go to trial on her charge. She had already admitted seizing a 13-year-old by the hair, hauling her to the ground, and striking her in the head.
August 5 is now the date both siblings will appear at Dundee Sheriff Court to learn their punishments.
According to testimony, the trouble began when Belov passed the group on foot and said “hello sexy, I’ll show you a good time.”
One girl responded by calling him a creep. Rather than continuing on his way, Belov stopped, turned around, and went back.
He also picked up his phone and called his sister.
Belova arrived and immediately attacked one of the young girls. Belov then pushed a 12-year-old to the ground.
At trial, Belov insisted the girls had thrown ethnic slurs at him and accused him of following them. He told the court he never made any sexual remark, swearing on his faith when the question was put to him directly.
His position was that he returned to the group because he refused to be disrespected, called his sister because the crowd had grown and he felt outnumbered, and pushed the 12-year-old only because he had spotted a knife tucked behind her back.
The knife did exist. So did an axe.
But the 12-year-old who carried them told the court a different version of events — that she only reached for the weapons after Belov had already knocked her down, and that she had not displayed them before that moment.
She also described how the confrontation physically unfolded: Belova pushed her and threw her sister to the ground. When she tried to intervene, Belov shoved her in the head. Her head hit a handrail.
She got up, pulled out the knife and axe, and Belov filmed her holding them on his phone. Both weapons were later retrieved from a nearby roundabout.
Prosecutor Michael Robertson pressed Belov on the most basic question the case raised. As the adult in the situation, Robertson asked, couldn’t he have just walked away? Belov’s answer:
“You are right. I needed to know why they are disrespecting me for no reason.” Robertson then asked why Belov’s first call went to his sister and not to police. “I thought we were in danger,” Belov said.
Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith was not persuaded by any of it.
He called the girls’ testimony “eloquent” and disposed of the self-defense claim entirely. “I am entirely satisfied by proof beyond reasonable doubt,” the sheriff said, “that the trigger for all of this were the comments that you made.”
One girl’s mother spoke to BBC Scotland News after the verdict came down. Her words were measured but pointed.
“They were telling the truth and they were slandered,” she said. “There were too many lies at the start, so I’m glad it’s all come out.”
She said it was “heartbreaking” to sit in court and watch CCTV footage of her daughter being “dragged about.”
Belov and Belova are both due back in court August 5 for sentencing.
