A Queens grand jury indicted a married couple from Jamaica Estates for abusing nine infants and toddlers at the daycare center they operated in the home on 188th Street near Midland Parkway, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Thursday.
Ilya Davydov, 48, and Ksenia Davydov, 41, promised to provide a “safe, caring, and nurturing environment” for the children entrusted into their care. Instead, they allegedly grabbed and kicked babies, shoved a soiled diaper into a baby’s mouth and dropped one child onto a table with such force that his hearing aids detached from his head.
The Davydovs were arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“The allegations in this case are a working parent’s worst nightmare,” Katz said. “As a mother of two boys, I understand the extreme care that parents take in researching and selecting daycares for their children. At the bare minimum, parents should be able to rely on a child’s basic needs being met and the safety of their children is assured.”
According to the charges and investigation, Ksenia Davydov had a New York state license to operate KSE Service Inc., a daycare center in her Jamaica Estates home, since 2015.
In late December 2023, acting on an anonymous tip that children were being abused inside the home at 82-21 188th St., the police and the NYS Office of Children and Family Services, which licenses child daycare facilities, visited the location and immediately shut it down for various violations. In addition, the NYPD obtained a court-authorized search warrant for the premises, and a large cache of video surveillance cameras was recovered.
During the investigation that followed, NYPD investigators and members of the District Attorney’s office reviewed hundreds of hours of video from inside the home, which contained various recorded incidents of abuse and endangering. Together, they worked to identify the children depicted in the videos.
According to the indictment, the investigation uncovered a pattern of abuse inflicted by Ksenia Davydov on multiple infants and toddlers under her care. On several occasions, Ksenia Davydov was seen forcing an apparently soiled diaper into the mouth of an 11-month-old boy, pressing a pillow over the infant’s face, and carrying the child—sometimes upside down—by his limbs before dropping him onto furniture. Surveillance footage also captured her shoving a 17-month-old child off a sofa, causing the toddler to fall onto the floor, yanking a 21-month-old by the arm, and throwing objects at a 14-month-old boy.
Ilya Davydov was also captured on video shoving the same 14-month-old boy, causing him to fall face-down onto a sofa, suspending the child in the air by gripping his arm, and grabbing his shirt before forcefully throwing him into a crib.
On separate occasions, Ilya Davydov was seen abusing a 3-year-old boy, including suspending him in the air by grabbing his neck with both hands before dropping him into a crib and kicking him. He was also observed kicking a 19-month-old child in the back, suspending a 17-month-old girl in the air by her arm, and then dropping her into a crib.
Further evidence shows that Ilya Davydov struck a 17-month-old boy in the head, lifted him off the floor by the hood of his jacket, and later dropped him into a crib. In another recorded incident, Ksenia Davydov was seen suspending the same child upside down by gripping his shirt and leg before dropping him onto a table with such force that his cochlear implants detached from his head.
“After an anonymous report of abuse at the facility in December 2023, my office and the NYPD immediately shut the business down so that no more children could get hurt,” Katz said.
At their arraignment before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris, Ilya Davydov was charged with five counts of attempted assault and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Ksenia Davydov was charged with four counts of attempted assault and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child. They were ordered to return to court on Feb. 21.
“My office is determined to get justice for these child victims and their families,” Katz said.
The charges against the Davydovs are not bail-eligible, but Justice Morris ordered the highest level of supervised release and the surrender of the defendants’ passports. If convicted of the top count, they face a potential sentence of up to 1 ⅓ to four years in prison on each count of attempted assault in the second degree, which is the maximum allowed under the law.
