Roommate Admits Sofia Student Murder, Claims Self-Defence

Crime | March 2, 2012, Friday // 12:51
Bulgaria: Roommate Admits Sofia Student Murder, Claims Self-Defence Ilko, the self-confessed murderer, is an excellent student and was the only one with no alcohol in his blood during the deadly melee. Photo by Facebook

A college student from the northeastern city of Dobrich has confessed he murdered a dorm roommate in a bid to stave off his attack.

"I grabbed the knife to protect myself because they attacked me with a knife and a fork," Ilko Radev, nineteen-year-old, told the police during the interrogation.

Mario Danchev, 19, a student from the Economy University in Sofia, was stabbed and killed in the dormitory where he lived with his twin brother and the murderer in the early hours on Wednesday.

During the interrogation Ilko repeated over and over again that he reached for the knife to protect himself. He said that before the fatal stab, he was heavily beaten by the twins and their friend. They attacked him with a knife and a fork, he grabbed the knife and started brandishing it at random.

"I am afraid that I will go to prison," said Ilko, who is an excellent student and was the only one with no alcohol in his blood during the deadly melee.

If convicted the young man faces from ten to twenty years in jail.

Ilko has confirmed that verbal fights between him and the twins were part of the daily routine. He made an attempt to move to another room, but the one on offer was extremely squalid, so he gave up the idea and was forced to stay with the two brothers.

On the fatal night the twins went out n a tour of nearby bars. They returned to the dorm after hours of alcohol drinking and, together with a friend of theirs, engaged in a conflict with the twins' roommate. Mario fell on the ground with a knife in his back in the melee that occurred.

In addition to Ilko, twin brother Martin, and Vladimir Borisov, were also arrested, but were later released.

Initially all of them denied using a knife. A knife was, however, discovered in the room, but forensics are yet to prove it was the murder weapon.

According to bTV, Mario, Martin and Ilko were roommates in dorm 23 in Sofia's Studentski Grad (College Town). Around 2 am Wednesday, Martin decided to return to the room, where Ilko was asleep.

Upon entering the room, Martin started turning the lights on and off and kicking furniture, which angered Ilko, who pushed his roommate out and locked himself inside.

Martin then called his brother and the friend - they arrived and began threatening Ilko they will break the door. The young man inside got scared and opened it – the three then stormed in the room and the fight began.

Relatives of the victim say he was a nice person, and never showed signs of aggression. He was from the western city of Pernik, from the family of two respected physical education teachers. Mario graduated from high school there last year.

Immediately after the incident, Education Minister, Sergey Ignatov, called an emergency meeting of all college presidents in the capital, where it was decided to place all dorms under the authority of the Education Ministry. The presidents asked for making Studentski Grad a separate district to be developed as a modern campus, not a hub of night clubs and bars.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov commented that there is no way to have a policeman at every dormitory, and asked for stricter rules for these buildings.

Sofia's College Town district is notorious for frequent fights, triggered by alcohol binging.

20-year-old pharmacy student Stoyan Baltov died on December 5, 2008 after sustaining severe head trauma and skull fracture from a beating in front of the "Amnesia" disco club in the district.

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Tags: Sergey Ignatov, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, suspect, Murder, stabbing, campus, sofia, roommate, charged, student, stabbed, death, sofia, College Town, police, brawl, melee, alcohol

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