The day I buried my son, I gave him my word

When she saw the expression on their faces, she realised at once that they had found him (Ivan Bilovetski) - and that he was dead. She tried to run there but they stopped her. They wanted to spare her the sight of her son's mangled body.

Now aged 47, Nina looks more like 60, her white hair a sharp contrast to the black clothes that she has worn every day since her son's death.

'The day I buried my son, I gave him my word that I would try to live long enough to see his killer with my own eyes', she was to declare as she broke down giving evidence during Chikatilo's trial several year later.

'I wanted to see this man who could rip open my son's stomach and then stuff mud in his mouth so that he would not cry out. I wanted to know what he looked like, to know which mother could bear such an animal.

'And now I see him.'