Woman from Nalchik demands to protect her grandson from bullying in family after his mother's death

A 59-year-old resident of Nalchik, the mother of a famous female athlete, is seeking guardianship over her seven-year-old grandson after her daughter's death. Psychologists and witnesses gave written testimonies that the boy was afraid of his father and complained of beatings and sexual violence. Despite this, the court refused to hand the child over to his grandmother.

The woman has claimed that the son of her son-in-law's sister had allegedly sexually harassed her grandson and that the guardianship bodies refused to respond to complaints. She insists that her grandson should live with her out of fear for his health if he remains with his father's new family after his mother died.

According to the woman, her grandson, after he began living with his father's new family in 2020, is mentally traumatized and is suffering from separation from his grandmother. According to the court ruling, the boy can see his grandmother only twice a month for four hours. According to the grandmother, every time the boy's return to his father's family turns into a tragedy both for the grandson and for her, because the child does not want to return and throws hysterics.

According to the woman, her daughter was a multiple champion of the world, Europe and Russia in one of combat sports. In 2019, she drowned.

The woman's son-in-law had verbally abandoned his son after his birth and stopped communicating with his wife. "She returned to professional sports, and I raised my grandson with my daughter," the woman has explained, adding that the son-in-law did not show up for her daughter's funeral.

The woman believes that her son-in-law has remembered about his son because it was important for receiving the inheritance; and he does not want to establish relations with her.

Maria Atskanova, a psychologist, tried to persuade the father to behave gently with the boy, to which he answered her in a rude manner. "I've witnessed many terrible things, such as the father handing over the boy to his sister's family with two children, one of them sexually assaulting the boy. He told me about this, and also that the father hit him hard on the head; he has to sleep on the floor because older children do not allow him to sleep in beds. The boy couldn't invent such a thing, he has no life experience," the psychologist has emphasized.

Inna Tsarukyan, another psychologist, has also noted in her conclusion that the boy has psychological deviations – phobias, neurotic behaviour, and fear of his father and his relatives.