Yavne man gets life plus 12 years for rape and murder

Andrei Liushchenko is also ordered to pay rape victim NIS 200,000 in compensation.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Justice gavel court law book judge 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Justice gavel court law book judge 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
The Central District Court in Petah Tikva sentenced a Yavne man to life in prison plus an additional 12 years on Thursday, after finding him guilty of murdering his friend and raping the victim’s mother. The judges ruled that the additional 12 years will run concurrent with the life sentence.
In January 2010, Andrei Liushchenko stabbed his friend, known only as S.K., to death in S.K.’s Rishon Lezion apartment. He then raped S.K.’s mother at knifepoint, and subjected her to a terrifying and brutal ordeal that lasted a day and a night.
Liushchenko was convicted of murder, rape, sodomy while using a weapon, tampering and destroying evidence and obstructing the investigation.
The court also ordered Liushchenko to pay S.K.’s mother NIS 200,000 compensation.
In sentencing Liushchenko, the panel of judges – Ruth Lorch, Zahva Bustan and Tsvi Dotan – said that the circumstances of the crimes had been “exceptional.”
“The complainant was treated with sadistic cruelty that harmed her on several levels,” the judges said. In an impact statement to the court, S.K.’s mother revealed that since the incidents, she has been “behaving like a robot, trying to function and to keep herself busy to avoid those thoughts and emotions that would cause her to break down.”
S.K.’s mother told the court that her murdered son was “all her dreams and hopes” and that the two had “lived for each other.”
S.K. had been a dutiful son, and a source of pride, because he supported the family financially and because he had completed his military service as a combat soldier, his mother said.
The judges noted that in her statement, S.K.’s mother had referred mainly to the damages caused her as a result of her son’s murder, not to the traumas she had suffered because of her rape and assault.
The complainant was surviving “using dissociation and reduction coping mechanisms,” the judge said, adding that she had not yet been able to work through the traumas resulting from the sexual violence.
In court, Liushchenko expressed remorse for his crimes, which he blamed on the fact that he had been drinking. His defense attorney, Tali Gotliv, said Liushchenko knew he must be punished for his crimes, but asked that any additional sentence imposed for the rape run concurrent to the mandatory life sentence for murder. According to the indictment, on January 2, 2010, the night of the murder and rape, Liushchenko and S.K. had gone to S.K.’s apartment after drinking alcohol together. After sleeping for several hours, S.K. awoke up and demanded Liushchenko leave his apartment. Liushchenko then punched S.K., knocking him back onto his bed. He grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed S.K. 12 times in the abdomen, chest and neck, stopping his attack only when he was sure S.K. had ceased breathing.
Immediately afterwards, the indictment said, Liushchenko went into S.K.’s mother’s room and ordered her to wake up. After beating her and threatening her with the knife, Liushchenko forced S.K.’s mother to undress and perform a sex act on him. He then raped her several times.
However, S.K.’s mother’s ordeal continued as Liushchenko kept her imprisoned at knifepoint throughout the day, forcing her to accompany him wherever he went. At one point, the indictment said, S.K’s mother saw her son’s bloody corpse lying on his bed and began to shout at Liushchenko, who threw her onto the floor and began to beat her, then stabbed her in the stomach.
As S.K.’s mother begged for her life, Liushchenko punched her in the mouth.
The next morning, January 3, S.K.’s mother waited until Liushchenko was asleep before going into her son’s room. Seeing her son’s lifeless body, the distraught mother began to scream at Liushchenko, who beat her.
At 10 a.m. that same morning, S.K.’s mother asked Liushchenko to give her money for a taxi. After Liushchenko threatened to kill her, she persuaded him she would tell police that the bruises on her body were from a fall down the stairs.
As a result of her ordeal, S.K.’s mother was hospitalized with multiple hematomas and several wounds to her intestines and spleen. She required surgery to remove her spleen.