Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court accused of physically and sexually assaulting the woman, who Mr Trump, 19, described to UK police as a ‘very close’ pal (Picture: Shutterstock)
A man accused of beating up a friend of Barron Trump in a jealous rage at their relationship tried to ‘show his dominance’ over the president’s son by making him watch, a court has heard.
Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court accused of physically and sexually assaulting the woman, who Mr Trump, 19, described to UK police as a ‘very close’ pal.
US President Donald Trump’s youngest son phoned 999 to report seeing her ‘getting beaten up’ during a FaceTime call in the early hours of January 18 last year.
Jurors have heard Rumiantsev answered the call from Barron and turned the camera to the woman’s face then grabbed her hair and pushed her to the floor yelling ‘You are not worth anything’.
She claims he strangled her, called her a ‘slut and a whore’ and kicked her in the stomach when she was on the floor.
Giving evidence, Rumiantsev has told jurors the woman’s phone was ‘constantly buzzing’ that day with FaceTime calls from Mr Trump.
He said he noticed the woman’s phone light up with another call later that night and answered it to try and bring her back to her senses after she became hysterical and started attacking him.
The defendant said: ‘I don’t know why I did that, maybe I thought she would realise that her behaviour was unreasonable, (that) she wouldn’t behave like this in front of someone else, especially Barron Trump.
‘And for some reason I didn’t give it much thought, I thought maybe she may have come back to her senses as a result of me taking that call and showing her hysterical state.’
But during cross-examination today, prosecutor Serena Gates suggested to Rumiantsev that he attacked the woman because he was ‘upset and angry’ by her ongoing contact with Mr Trump.
US President Donald Trump’s youngest son phoned 999 to report seeing her ‘getting beaten up’ during a FaceTime call (Picture: AFP via Getty)
Jurors were played a video taken by the alleged victim who is heard loudly crying while Rumiantsev asks her in Russian if she ‘understands’.
‘What were you trying to make her understand?’ Ms Gates asked.
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He replied: ‘I’m not sure, it was just an expression in Russian, I was trying to make her understand that whatever she was doing was unreasonable – that’s why I answer that phone call.’
Ms Gates added: ‘She’s upset, and you decide to grab her phone and answer a FaceTime call from Barron Trump?
‘What were you trying to demonstrate to him?’
Rumiantsev replied: ‘I wasn’t trying to demonstrate anything to him.’
Ms Gates said: ‘You took the phone and turned the camera onto (the complainant), didn’t you?’
‘Yes’, he answered.
‘So, you were trying to demonstrate something to him, weren’t you?’, she continued.
‘I was trying to demonstrate something to her,’ Rumiantsev told jurors.
Jurors have heard Rumiantsev answered the call from Barron and turned the camera to the woman’s face and hit her
Ms Gates asked: ‘Were you trying to demonstrate to Barron Trump that this was your woman?’
Rumiantsev replied: ‘No. I was being hit for a long period of time, I was quite fed up with the situation, I was trying to perhaps find a solution.’
Ms Gates then put to him: ‘I suggest you weren’t being hit at this stage, it was you beating up the complainant, wasn’t it? You hit her during that FaceTime call to Barron Trump?’
‘No,’ Rumiantsev stated.
‘You held the phone in one hand and hit her with another hand, hit her in the face?’ Ms Gates suggested.
‘No,’ he repeated, adding: ‘I did not intentionally hit her in the face at any point, no.’
Ms Gates noted that it was the complainant who ended the FaceTime call with Mr Trump.
She continued: ‘I suggest the reason you made no attempt to finish that call is because you wanted to physically show your dominance over the complainant, and you wanted to show that to the person at the other end of the phone.’
‘No,’ he again repeated.
Rumiantsev said he may have grabbed her hair while she was hitting him and brought her back into the house.
He recalled stopping her calling the police at least once.
Rumiantsev told the court: ‘I was drunk. I was not angry, was not jealous. I was emotional and very exhausted from a long evening.
‘I was a bit tired of her hysterical behaviour.’
Rumiantsev, a Russian citizen who lives in Canary Wharf, east London, denies assault, actual bodily harm, intentional strangulation, perverting the course of justice and two counts of rape, in charges dating between November 1, 2024, and January 23, 2025.
His trial continues.
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