[ad_1]
Brian Melley
London: The crime was in London, the offender Russian, and the witness who saw a woman being beaten on a video call was in America – and happened to be the youngest son of US President Donald Trump.
Barron Trump called police in the British capital, and his intervention more than a year ago led to an assault conviction on Wednesday (London time) of Matvei Rumiantsev, who admitted he was jealous of his girlfriend’s friendship with Trump.
Trump said he placed a late-night FaceTime call to the victim – a woman he met on social media – and was startled when it was answered by a bare-chested man.
“This view lasted maybe one second and I was racing with adrenaline,” Trump told police of the incident, just days before his father’s inauguration as president.
“The camera was then flipped to the victim getting hit while crying, stating something in Russian.”
The call was hung up after a few seconds and Trump then phoned London police. In a recording of the call, Trump could be heard pleading for help as the dispatcher insisted he answer basic questions about the victim.
“How do you know her?” the operator asked after a back-and-forth dialogue.
“I don’t think these details matter, she’s getting beat up,” Trump said.
“Can you stop being rude and actually answer my questions?” the dispatcher said. “If you want to help the person, you’ll answer my questions clearly and precisely, thank you. So how do you know her?”
Police went to the address on January 18 and arrested Rumiantsev, 22, a receptionist who lived in London.
He was acquitted in Snaresbrook Crown Court of rape and choking the woman on the night Trump called police, and an additional rape and assault alleged in November 2024.
Rumiantsev testified that he was jealous of Trump but also felt badly for him because he thought his girlfriend was leading him on.
Defence lawyer Sasha Wass said Trump didn’t know the woman had a boyfriend, and questioned how much he could have seen in five or seven seconds of video.
Wass said the woman exploited her ties to Trump to make her boyfriend envious in a “relationship full of dramas”.
Trump, 19, the only child of Donald and Melania Trump, didn’t testify in the case.
Judge Joel Bennathan advised jurors before they began deliberating to treat Barron Trump’s accounts – on the recording of his call to police and his follow-up email to investigators – with caution because he hadn’t been subjected to cross-examination.
“If he had done so, no doubt, he could have been asked about things such as whether he ever got a good view of what happened, whether he actually saw [the woman] being assaulted, or jumped to this conclusion on the basis of her screams,” Bennathan said.
“He might also have been asked whether his perception was biased because he was close friends with [her].”
Rumiantsev was also convicted of perverting the course of justice because he sent the woman a letter from jail asking her to retract her allegations. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on March 27.
AP
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
From our partners
[ad_2]
