Two Bulgarian siblings who assaulted girls during an incident in Dundee last year have been sentenced, with one being put on the sex offenders register.
Ilia Belov, 23, assaulted a 12-year-old girl during the incident and behaved in a “threatening or abusive manner” towards four girls aged between 12 and 14.
On Friday, he was sentenced to 18 months of supervision, 300 hours of unpaid work, and had his name placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months.
He had been found guilty following a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court earlier this year.
Belov’s sister Nadjedzha Belova, 20, earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of assaulting a 13-year-old girl during the same incident, which happened in the Lochee area of the city in August 2025.
She was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work during the same hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday.
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith had earlier rejected Belov’s version of events, describing it as “neither credible nor reliable”.
During the trial, the court heard events began when Belov made sexual remarks to a 12-year-old as she walked towards a bus stop with some other girls.
Giving evidence by videolink, the girl, who is now 14, recalled: “He kept saying, ‘come here sexy. I will show you how to have a good time’.”
She said his words made her feel “dead angry” and she turned around and began shouting at him.
Belov then phoned his sister, who arrived shortly afterwards and began attacking a 13-year-old member of the group.
In the ensuing fracas, Belov pushed the 12-year-old, who told the court she hit her head on a metal handrail as she fell to the ground.
After standing back up, she pulled out an axe and knife she said had been hidden in her waistband for five to 10 minutes before the incident.
When the police arrived minutes later, the girl said she dumped the weapons on a nearby roundabout, where they were later recovered by officers.
Belov had denied having made sexualised remarks to the girls, telling the court they had been saying derogatory things to him, including calling him a “f****** migrant”.
Sentencing Belov, Sheriff Niven-Smith said it was “inevitable” that something would happen when he chose to follow the girls, and that his actions were “intended to intimidate”.
Although Sheriff Niven-Smith said Belov’s actions were “not pre-planned or pre-meditated”, he emphasised that Belov decided to follow a group of female children, causing them fear and trauma.
“The victims have sustained psychological trauma from your actions,” Belov was told.
The sheriff also determined that Belov’s comments towards the youngest victim had a “significant sexual aspect”.
“The evidence was clear that you came upon (the victims) by happenstance,” Sheriff Niven-Smith said.
“Once you made the remarks, you stopped, turned and followed the girls. You were 22 years old, and a stranger to the girls.”
He added that the comments Belov made towards the girls was for “sexual gratification”.
Sheriff Niven-Smith was clear that the offences for both Belov and his sister crossed the threshold for imprisonment, but considering their age, work history and lack of other previous or ongoing offences, he imposed an alternative sentence that he said “primarily considered rehabilitation”.
Speaking to reporters as he left the court building on Friday, Belov said he had “nothing to say” to the young victims “other than to wish everyone a good life”.
“I will continue to be as normal as I was before, look after my family, look after my community and everyone,” he said.
Belov told the press that he has lost “many things” as a result of the case.
“It’s hard actually. Every one of you have families, and you have to feed children, you have to look after wife and things, and all the pressure on social media has brought everything on me and my life, and my family,” he said.
“I will continue to be the man I was before – normal, happy, looking after his children.”
A moment later when asked about the victims, he said “you have to think about that, the girl was wearing weapons too. Can you talk about that?”
“I will continue to go my way and see my social worker.”