An ‘evil’ mother has confessed to murdering her three-year-old daughter by leaving her home alone while she went on a week-long partying spree.
Maria Plenkina, 21, deserted tragic Kristina who was so hungry she tried to eat washing powder, a court was told.
The girl was found naked having starved to death in a cold room in a rubbish-strewn flat having eaten the small amount of food - yoghurt, chicken and sausages - her mother had left her.
Before leaving for her party week coinciding with Valentine’s Day last year, Plenkina turned off the water in the flat.
The girl's body was found by her grandmother Irina Plenkina, 47, who had come to wish her a happy third birthday.
The mother - branded evil by neighbours - faces from eight to 20 years in jail for the cruel murder of her child.
A criminal investigation into “murder with extreme cruelty” proved that Plenkina locked her daughter in the flat from February 13 and only returned on February 20.
Psychiatrists found that she was “sane” and “fully aware of her actions”, the court was told.
The mother stayed with friend Anastasia Kurpina who said Plenkina lied to her that Kristina was being cared for by a pal.
Anastasia told investigators that she paid for her friend’s daily visits to nightclubs and cafes, buying her alcohol.
Not long before her week-long spree, Plenkina had split with her boyfriend.
Confessing to murder but saying she did not intend to kill her, Maria said she had left food for her child but gave contradictory accounts.
Sobbing she said in court: “I never wanted her to die”.
A committee spokeswoman said: “The girl's mother said that she deliberately closed the door of the apartment and left the house.”
She was “having a good time with friends” and was “on a spree”.
When she was detained the mother did not cry and showed no regret, said law enforcement sources.
“She just says in cold blood: 'Yes, I left, I closed off the water and left the child without water and food’,” they said.
The child’s distraught grandmother said she could have cared for the child if only she knew her daughter was leaving.
“She lied to me that everything was fine,” she said.
“She lied to everyone.
“I never thought that Maria could do such a thing…
“If only I had had spotted something was wrong, I would have taken the girl to me.”
There was never any sign of previous abuse, she said.
“She has shown the highest class of professional acting - if you deceive everyone to such an extent.
“I completely did not know my daughter, it turns out.”