-
AP, LONDON
-
-
A Russian man was on Friday sentenced to four years in prison for assaulting a woman in London in an attack that was witnessed on a video call and reported to police by US President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron.
Matvei Rumiantsev, 23, was convicted by a jury on Jan. 28 of assault with bodily harm, but was acquitted of rape and choking charges. He was also convicted of perverting the course of justice, because he sent the woman a letter from jail asking her to retract her allegations.
In his sentencing remarks at Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London, Justice Joel Bennathan said Rumiantsev was “totally unrepentant” and a “man given to jealousy.”
Barron Trump watches as his father, US President Donald Trump, attends an indoor inauguration parade event at Capital One Arena in Washington on Jan. 20 last year.
Photo: AP
“Your lack of insight and empathy was apparent at trial,” the judge said. “You continue to try to blame the complainant for everything that has happened.”
In the attack on Jan. 18 last year, Rumiantsev drunkenly beat up the woman, who is entitled to anonymity under British law, when he became jealous of her friendship with Barron Trump. She had met the US president’s son, who lives in the US, through social media.
During the assault, Rumiantsev answered a FaceTime call from Barron Trump on the woman’s phone and turned the camera to show her crying on the floor.
The US president’s son then called police in the British capital and pleaded for help for the woman, telling the operator during a sometimes strained conversation: “It’s really an emergency … I’m calling from the US, uh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up.”
Police went to the address and arrested Rumiantsev, a receptionist who lived in London.
Rumiantsev testified that he was jealous of Trump, but that he also felt badly for him, because he thought that his girlfriend was leading him on.
During the trial, defense lawyer Sasha Wass said that Trump did not know the woman had a boyfriend and questioned how much he could have seen in five or seven seconds of video.
She said the woman had exploited her ties to Trump to make her boyfriend envious in a “relationship full of dramas.”
Barron, 20, the only child of Donald and Melania Trump, did not testify in the case.
The judge praised Barron Trump for contacting police and for helping prevent something worse.
He said the victim feared she was about to be killed.
“Mr Trump, properly and responsibly, despite being in the United States, made sure the emergency services here were called, and he told them what he had seen,” the judge said.
