Victims of domestic violence: Pregnant women from Bourgas have sought help over the past few days

Domestic violence in the country is on a large scale, but after the atrocity with the girl from Stara Zagora and protests and public pressure for adequate punishment, more and more women decided to seek help. In the costal city of Bourgas, there have already been more than 5 reports in just three days. Some of the cases are more than disturbing.

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With each passing day, there are more and more reports of domestic violence in Bourgas, and these in turn are more and more disturbing. The Prosecutor's office has already reacted to some of them, and two people were remanded in custody by the court on charges of beating their spouses. Three of the cases are for aggression against pregnant women. Perhaps one of the most striking cases, which was revealed today in the programme "The Day Begins" on BNT, is that of a pregnant woman who lost her child before it was born, again because of a beating.

The 28-year-old Georgi Kochev is in court today. On Tuesday, he beat up his 23-year-old girlfriend, with whom he had been living together for a year and a half and had been expecting a baby for seven months.

"He told her he was going to kill her. At the same time, he punched her in the head, kicked her and dragged her. The perpetrator had been convicted, with his last conviction in 2014 for causing moderate bodily harm on hooligan motives," said Zornitsa Shcherbeva, spokeswoman for the Bourgas District Prosecutor's Office.

"He explained to me that the victim's claim was not true, that it was rather the opposite, that she attacked him and even showed me scratches on his neck," said Vladimir Gospodinov, the defendant's ex-officio defence lawyer.

Georgi was defended by an ex-officio counsel as his lawyer withdrew.

"Because I have moral considerations for this - I am a mother, I am a woman, in this sense I cannot carry out the defence now," said Vesselina Vassileva, a lawyer.

The district court left the abuser in custody. However, another has yet to be charged. He beat his pregnant girlfriend, and she lost the child.

"She was pregnant in her fourth month, For medical reasons, she had to give birth to a stillborn fetus, as a result of physical violence in the abdomen, her water broke, she lost the baby and had to be operated on an emergency basis," said Zhenya Petrova, director of the Centre for Prevention of Violence in Bourgas.

The woman sought help at the Centre for Prevention of Violence in Bourgas, and they assisted her in obtaining a restraining order from the court. But this is not enough, experts say, as cases often go without effective sentences.

"I have been dealing with domestic violence cases for 10 years, The judges invite the parties to settlement or in the last two or three years to mediation, which is absolutely wrong and inadequate in the situation of domestic violence. Now with the new changes, this thing is forbidden," said Nevena Čaipek, a lawyer.

However, 45-year-old Dian Ivanov, who yesterday inflicted a vicious beating on his wife and her father, has been remanded and remains in custody. He could get up to 3 years of imprisonment. The charge is for causing minor bodily harm.

Thousands came out in protests across the country against violence