A top professor who beheaded his PhD student lover was overpowered when he grabbed a sword during a police crime scene reenactment aiming to kill himself.
Leading Russian military historian Oleg Sokolov, 63, has confessed to stabbing and dismembering 24-year-old Anastasia Yeschenko before disposing of her body parts in a river.
The Napoleon expert was taken from his custody cell to his luxury St Petersburg flat to show detectives how he committed the murder as part of the criminal investigation.
The Napoleon expert was taken from his custody cell to his luxury St Petersburg flat to show detectives how he committed the murder as part of the criminal investigation. With his handcuffs off he tried to grab the Napoleonic sword (circled) but was stopped by officers, say law enforcement sources
St Petersburg State University history professor Oleg Sokolov (centre) was flanked by officers and wearing protective clothing for the crime reenactment on Friday
With his handcuffs off he tried to grab the Napoleonic sword but was stopped by officers, say law enforcement sources.
His lawyer Alexander Pochuev said: ‘The defence can only confirm that he tried to commit suicide.
‘He was stopped by policemen. There was no threat to third parties, the act was aimed only at himself.’
Professor Oleg Sokolov (right) was arrested on suspicion of murder after he was dragged from a freezing river carrying two severed arms in a backpack. The young woman – identified by police sources as 24-year-old Anastasia Yeschenko (left) – was a student of the professor, reported Russian media
Leading Russian military historian Oleg Sokolov (pictured), 63, has confessed to stabbing and dismembering 24-year-old Anastasia Yeschenko before disposing of her body parts in a river
The victim’s grieving mother Galina Yeschenko (pictured) today claimed Anastasia had told Sokolov she was leaving him – and she believes this triggered his violent attack
He had been taken to the reenactment wearing a police helmet and bullet proof vest for his own protection.
The sword had been lying on a table.
During the reenactment he demonstrated on a mannequin how he killed the PhD student and cut up her body using a saw.
Sokolov accompanied by police officers for Friday’s crime re-enactment. The historian allegedly shot and killed his lover during an argument and then sawed off her head, arms and legs
The victim’s grieving mother today claimed Anastasia had told Sokolov she was leaving him – and she believes this triggered his violent attack.
Galina Yeschenko, a 49-year-old police Lt-Colonel, said: ‘She just got fed up with total control by Sokolov, and she told him that she was leaving.’
The mother told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper she had earlier urged her daughter to leave a man old enough to be her grandfather.
Yeshchenko (pictured) had been shot at least four times with a rifle after an argument, and her decapitated body and a blood-stained saw were found at the historian’s home, it is claimed
Sokolov dancing with his 24-year-old student lover Anastasia Yeshchenko at a ball just a year before he killed her and dismembered her body
Pochuev said Sokolov was ‘tormented’ after shooting his lover four times and dismembering her body.
‘He repents,’ he said. ‘He wants to apologise to the family, to the extent this is possible and wishes to correct the situation.’
The lawyer claimed the killing may have happened because of a full moon.
‘It is a known medical fact that many schizophrenic debuts… happen this time,’ he said.
Sokolov is in custody pending the murder investigation.
He faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
