Photos: Nanny Who Beheaded 4-Year Old Girl In Russia Says Allah Asked Her To

The nanny accused of murdering a child in her care and brandishing the child's severed head outside a metro station smiled after admitting 'Allah ordered' her to carry out the act.

Gulchekhra Bobokulova, a 38-year-old mother of three sons, also replied 'yes' when asked if she accepted her guilt as she entered the courtroom in Moscow, Russia.

In scenes that shocked the world yesterday, the hijab-wearing nanny was seen walking the streets of Moscow brandishing the head of Nastya Meshcheryakova for an hour before she was detained by police.

Her appearance in court comes a day after a police source revealed the babysitter had kept her schizophrenia a secret and was 'kicked on to the streets' after a divorce.

Bobokulova, who the Russian press has dubbed 'the bloody nanny' was asked as she walked towards the court room handcuffed to a police officer why she killed the child, and she replied: 'Allah ordered me.'

And asked in court if she pleaded guilty, she nodded yes. Questioned if she felt sorry about the girl, she shook her head, evidently meaning no. Inside the court cage, she smiled and waved to journalists. 

Speaking in broken Russian from the suspect's cage, Bobokulova said: 'Allah is sending a second prophet to give news of peace' and also complained that she was 'hungry', had not been fed and would 'die in a week'.

'Hi to everyone,' she said, waving at the crowd of journalists in the courtroom.

Investigator Olga Lapteva, who was clearly emotional, told the court that Bobokulova was suspected of committing an 'extremely serious crime' and that she should face 'a mandatory prison sentence of considerably more than three years.'

Her appearance comes as pictures emerged showing the inside of the flat where the four-year-old's headless body was discovered.

It has also emerged today that a mystery boyfriend may have been with her in the apartment at the time the child, Nastya Meshcheryakova, was killed.

Police apparently now believe that she was not the instigator of the crime.

She has confessed to killing the child but police are now searching for the mystery man who evidently had a relationship with her - and is suspected of radicalising her.

It was revealed today that police suspect a boyfriend or husband visited her at the Meshcheryakov family flat on the day the girl was killed.

The child was killed between 8am and 8.40am so it suggests an early visit.

Interfax reported that police are 'checking if it is true that a stranger was in the flat at that time and if he has something to do with the murder'.

An investigator told the court: 'The accomplices of the suspect, or we better say the instigators, are currently at large.'

One theory is that the woman is mentally ill and that she may have been exploited by a man or men she knew.

It is believed she had a serious argument with her current partner on the phone the day before the murder.

A relative of the dead girl said that Bobokulova - known as Gulya to the family - had married a man during a trip to Uzbekistan around 18 months ago.

'Gulya seriously changed after this,' said the relative. She started wearing hijab, she began to pray in her room.

'Before she was never religious, she wore ordinary clothes, sports clothes, shirts. But when she left the flat, she always put on a hijab.'

Nastya's mother Ekaterina - or Katya - treated the change 'with understanding - it was Gulya's religion'.

'I know she was arguing with her new husband on phone very often recently,' said the relative.

'The day before the murder they had a particularly loud argument that Katya even asked Gulya to slow down.'

Bobokulova had been registered at a psychiatric clinic in her homeland Uzbekistan - and her condition had been deteriorating in recent months, the source said.

Pictures emerged yesterday of her being interrogated in a police station in the Russian capital as conflicting reports continued to emerge about her personal life.

Escorted by armed police, handcuffed Bobokulova - herself a mother of three - earlier showed officers the Moscow flat where she apparently strangled Nastya , who had learning difficulties, before cutting off her head with a kitchen knife. The little girl’s remains were left in her cot.