In August 2025, Bulgarian siblings Ilia Belov, 23, and Nadjedzha Belova, 20, were sentenced at Dundee Sheriff Court for assaulting young girls in Lochee, Scotland. Belov received 18 months of supervision, 300 hours of unpaid work, and was placed on the sex offender register for 18 months after being found guilty of assault and making sexualized remarks towards a 12-year-old girl who had concealed weapons. His sister pleaded guilty to assaulting a 13-year-old and received 180 hours of unpaid work. Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith emphasized that Belov's actions were intended to intimidate, causing psychological trauma to the victims.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
In August 2025, Ilia Belov and his sister Nadjedzha Belova, both Bulgarian nationals living in Dundee, Scotland, assaulted several young girls. The incident occurred in the Lochee area of Dundee when Ilia made sexual remarks to a 12-year-old girl, causing her to feel angry and confront him verbally. Ilia then called his sister, who arrived and attacked another girl, aged 13. During this altercation, Ilia pushed the original 12-year-old victim, who fell and hit her head on a metal handrail.
On Friday at Dundee Sheriff Court, Ilia Belov was sentenced to 18 months of supervision, ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work, and placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months. His sister, Nadjedzha Belova, received a sentence of 180 hours of unpaid work. The court rejected Ilia’s account of events as “neither credible nor reliable.”
Written for “Bulgarian Siblings Sentencing Dundee” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.
Ilia Belov and his sister Nadjedzha Belova were sentenced on Friday at the city’s sheriff court.
asserted
Belov → sentence → court
It followed an incident in Lochee in August 2025, in which a young girl could be seen brandishing an axe and a knife.
uncertain
girl → follow → axe
Police had initially attacked “misinformation” around the video.
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Police → attack → video
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 offender register for 18 months.
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name → assault → months
He had been found guilty following a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court earlier this year.
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He → find → Court
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.
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which → plead → August
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She was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work during the same hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court.
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She → read → Court
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith had earlier rejected Belov’s version of events, describing it as “neither credible nor reliable”.
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Smith → reject → it
During the trial, the court heard the incident began when Belov made sexual remarks to a 12-year-old as she walked towards a bus stop with some other girls.
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she → hear → girls
In an 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.
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she → ensue → 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.
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she → stand → 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.
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they → arrive → 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”.
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they → deny → him
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”.
“The victims have sustained psychological trauma from your actions,” Belov was told.
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Belov → sentence → actions
The sheriff also determined that Belov’s comments towards the youngest victim had a “significant sexual aspect”.
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comments → determine → aspect
He added that the comments Belov made towards the girls was for “sexual gratification”.
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Belov → add → 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”.
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he → cross → rehabilitation
Belov’s solicitor Larry Flynn told the court before sentencing that his client had been impacted by the widespread attention that the case gained in the press and on social media.
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case → tell → media
The court heard that Belov and sister, Belova, have found it hard to gain employment in Scotland since the case began – with Belova travelling to the Netherlands to find employment picking fruit as the case allowed.
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case → hear → fruit
However, Sheriff Niven-Smith emphasised that footage Belov took of one of the victims holding weapons found its way onto the internet.
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Belov → emphasise → internet
He said that Belov himself, or someone he sent the video to, must have uploaded the footage, and became the “author of his own misfortune in that regard”.
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he → say → regard
Later, the sheriff said the victims have also been affected by the footage.
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victims → say → footage
Child victims are normally granted a right to anonymity.
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victims → grant → anonymity
In this case, Sheriff Niven-Smith noted that images have appeared on social media and in the public domain.
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images → note → domain
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.
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he → speak → community
Belov told the press that he has lost “many things” as a result of the case.
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he → tell → case
“It’s hard actually.
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It → ’ → ?
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.
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he → have → me
“I will continue to be the man I was before – normal, happy, looking after his children.”
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I → continue → children
A moment later when asked about the victims, he said: “You have to think about that, the girl was wearing weapons too.
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girl → ask → weapons
Can you talk about that?”
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you → talk → that
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