“I just want to take care of my children. To drive the little one to kindergarten, the big one to school. I’m the only driver in the family, my child hasn’t been to kindergarten since I’ve been detained.” This is what Plovdiv photographer Dimitar Dardov said through tears in his last words before the District Court. Today he tried unsuccessfully to get out of custody. After listening to the prosecutor and his lawyer and it was time for him to defend himself, he couldn’t take it anymore and burst into tears.
According to the prosecutor’s office, on an unspecified date in 2021, a 7-year-old girl was left by her mother to Dardov to look after him in a villa on Varkhovrakh. He took advantage of his position and performed acts to arouse sexual desire without intercourse with him. On October 10 of this year in a residence in Plovdiv, photo and video files were found, representing pornographic materials with children, which, according to the state prosecution, he created and kept for himself. 2 days later, the District Court imposed the most severe remand measure on him.
“We have 2 boys, he is generally an extremely caring father, attentive, especially since I started working, taking care of them is entirely his. When they get sick, he looks after them, he takes care of them, because he has more time,” Yordanka Mateeva, the woman with whom Dardov lives, told the magistrates. She described her friend as a kind and loving person who was devoted to his family. According to her, the photographer never showed aggression.
Prosecutor Svetoslava Pencheva asked the court panel not to respect the complaint, pointing out that there is enough evidence of Dimitar Dardov’s guilt. “The photo album contains videos which the accused cannot deny were recorded by him because he had the imprudence to record himself in the mirror as well. He can be seen committing lewd acts with a minor child,” she stated. Her words were on the occasion of the photographer’s claim that all the pornographic material found was from the hard drives of his clients. According to prosecutor Pencheva, the degree of public danger of both Dardov and the crime he is accused of is extremely high.
The defense of the 42-year-old photographer, lawyer Yordan Davchev, criticized her claims, pointing out that some of the files were from 20 years ago.
“In no way has it been proven that this folder was created by my trustee. He has photographed over 600 weddings and 800 baptisms. It works most often with second-hand hard drives owned by customers, on which there are pictures of them. They are separated in a separate folder, but he cannot dispose of them”, said the lawyer.
He also criticized the accusation of fornication, since it was not specified who exactly the injured girl was. “The girl was questioned today. If you had the protocol you would see, not a single doubt in this direction. That’s why I say it’s strange – they delivered the accused from the blue room, but they didn’t deliver the interrogation protocol, which was so important that they called me 14 times”, said the defender Davchev. He also described his client as a workaholic, a good father and partner who lives only for his family. According to him, Dardov cannot prevent the investigation, because all the evidence has been collected and the witnesses have been questioned. He asked for a lighter measure, even house arrest, since the photographer could work from home.
After deliberation, the court rejected the appeal.
“From the seized hard drives, when connecting them to his laptop, numerous files with pornographic content were found, with the participation of minors. They show both sexual intercourse and the display of genitals by underage girls,” said judge Slavka Dimitrova. She pointed out that the investigation was started on a tip from Europol.
2023-10-19 15:27:00
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