An unrepentant Bulgarian factory worker who assaulted a 12-year-old schoolgirl after calling her “sexy” avoided a prison sentence after falsely telling police that she had racially abused him.
Ilia Belov, 23, told Dundee Sheriff Court that he had become “a social pariah” in the city and that Scottish friends had turned their backs on him.
The case attracted international attention after police initially accepted Belov’s claims that the girl had called him a “f***ing migrant” and threatened him. The 12-year-old was subsequently arrested and charged.
Belov filmed the frightened schoolgirl, who came from an “ordinary family”, holding a knife and an axe. He later shared the footage online and accused her of racism.
She was subjected to online abuse while police and First Minister John Swinney appeared to support the Bulgarian national. Elon Musk also shared the video and publicly backed the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Musk asked his 241.5 million followers: “What kind of government arrests little girls who try to defend themselves?”
The girl was finally vindicated in June this year, 10 months after the incident, when Belov was found guilty of assault.
Speaking outside Dundee Sheriff Court today, Belov refused to apologise for attacking the girl or for the lies he told. He said he wanted to move on with his life and care for his two children.
“I have lost many things. That girl was wearing weapons. Can you talk about that please? I will continue to go on my way and see my social worker. Please have good luck,” he said.
Belov also said he and his sister had been photographed laughing and “smirking” outside court on several occasions because they were not accustomed to the attention.
The court heard that Belov followed the girl and three other children through Dundee in August last year as they went out to buy cigarettes. He shouted: “Come here sexy. I will show you how to have a good time.”
When the girl confronted him and called him “creepy”, Belov shoved her. She fell and struck her head on a metal handrail in the Lochee area of Dundee.
Belov then called his sister, who came to the scene and assaulted a 13-year-old girl. The siblings later gave police a fabricated account of the incident.
Ilia Belov, 23, and his sister, Nadjedzha Belova, 20, outside Dundee Sheriff Court earlier this year. Belov falsely claimed he had acted in self-defence after his victim called him a “f***ing migrant”; he and his sister were given community sentences
Belov filmed his victim holding a knife and axe in footage that led to her arrest and was shared around the world. It took 10 months for her name to be fully cleared after police initially failed to believe her
Belov was sentenced today to 18 months of supervision, ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work and placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months. He was convicted after a trial earlier this year.
His sister, Nadjedzha Belova, 20, had previously admitted assaulting a 13-year-old girl during the same incident in Lochee in August 2025.
She received 180 hours of unpaid work at the same hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday.
The court heard that Belov had become “a social pariah” in the community and that many of his Scottish friends had abandoned him after the case attracted widespread publicity.
It was also told that both siblings and the victims had been adversely affected by the intense global reaction the incident provoked on social media.
She told the trial: ‘He kept saying ‘come here sexy, I’ll show you how to have a good time’. I was angry. I basically turned around and shouted at him.
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‘He said it like three or four times. I know he got on the phone and started ringing someone to come down. Then some lassie comes running across the road.’
Belov was placed under supervision, added to the sex offenders register for 18 months and ordered to complete the maximum 300 hours of unpaid work.
Belova was ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work, with Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith telling both siblings that their sentences were direct alternatives to custody.
Sheriff Niven-Smith told Belov: ‘You have been the author of your own misfortune’ by filming the child with the weapons and allowing the footage to be posted on social media.
The sheriff added: ‘Your motivation in making the remarks was for sexual gratification. I am satisfied there was a significant sexual element.
‘There were multiple victims of your offending and they were all children. Your conduct will have had a psychological impact on your victims.
‘I do not consider you genuinely contrite or remorseful. You have externalised responsibility on to your victims. That is not a mitigating factor.’
Addressing Belova, the sheriff said: ‘You attended with the intention of assaulting one or more of the girls interacting with your brother. The commission of the assault was premeditated.
‘You simply arrived at speed and commenced your assault. This was an unpleasant and wholly unprovoked attack on a child.’
Defence solicitor Larry Flynn said of Belov: ‘It is a rather unusual case and he has become a social pariah. His Scottish friends, of which he had many, have abandoned him.’
The victim’s mother said recently that it was ‘heartbreaking’ that her daughter had ‘told the truth from the start’ but was not believed, including by Police Scotland.
The case exploded online after Elon Musk shared the viral video on X.
However, the schoolgirl was heavily criticised after First Minister John Swinney dismissed Musk’s intervention as ‘deliberate misinformation’ and accused the billionaire of attempting to undermine community cohesion.
Police Scotland also issued a statement saying a ‘Bulgarian couple’ had been ‘approached by youths’, in a move critics said appeared to place the blame on the girls.
It was only days later, after detectives reviewed all available CCTV footage, that investigators concluded the children had been telling the truth.
When the case eventually came to court, the girl, now 13, and her sister, now 14, were described as ‘impressive’ and ‘eloquent’ witnesses and praised for the consistency and honesty of their evidence.
Outside court in June, the girls’ mother said all four children had been vindicated, while Belov’s lies had finally been exposed.
‘They were telling the truth and they were slandered. There were too many lies at the start, so I’m glad it has all come out,’ she said.
‘It’s been heartbreaking. They told the truth from the start but no one believed them.
‘Everyone was more focused on the axe than anything else and didn’t listen to what really happened. We’re just a wee ordinary family. I’m just glad it’s finally all sorted and we can begin to move on.’