Russian teacher accused of murdering three-year-old daughter

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, January 30 (RIA Novosti) - A teacher in Russia's Far East has been charged with murdering her three-year-old daughter, a spokesman for investigators said on Friday.

Investigators in the town of Yelizovo have established that in July 2008 the 30-year-old woman suspected that her brother had raped her daughter and that it would be better for the girl to die after this.

"The woman thought that the girl should not live after what had happened and stabbed her 25 times with a kitchen knife,"

Psychiatrics have said that the woman was mentally unstable at the time of the attack and had lost grip with reality. They have recommended that the woman receive psychiatric help.

Russian media also reported on Thursday that a teacher in Russia's northeastern Siberia republic of Yakutia had been charged with drunkenly beating to death his three-year-old daughter.

The body of the girl was discovered by police on December 25 in an apartment in the small town of Arilakh, said the Sakha News website. Tests later showed that the child's death was caused by multiple injuries to her chest, stomach, ribs, lungs and liver.

Investigators say that the teacher had been drinking spirits when he noticed that money was missing from his wallet. He decided that it had been stolen by his daughter, and when she denied it, he flew into a rage and began beating her, wrote the Moskovsky Komsomolets paper.

The man faces 15 years behind bars if convicted. The investigation is continuing.