News

The Tomsk Region Office of the Investigative Committee continues investigating cases opened into a sexual abuse of a small girl and attempted rape of a minor in the city of Tomsk (Part 4, item “b” of Article 131, Part 3 of Article 30, Part 3, item “a” of Article 131 of the RF Penal Code).

On the afternoon of 2 September 2016, a small girl was raped while walking to school through a forest located along a railway. An investigative team consisting of most experienced criminalists was set up to investigate the crime. During the examination of the crime scene, investigators seized material evidence. They found brown stains resembling blood and other biological traces on the girl’s clothes. The said traces were run through a test and revealed the rapist’s DNA.

The investigators combed the route the rapist was most likely to take and checked ex-cons living in the neighborhood. An identikit was made allowing the search to involve more people. However, neither of the said efforts gave any results.

A week later, on 9 September, the police got a report that an unidentified man assaulted a girl not far from the first crime scene. This time the victim fought back and the assailant failed to finish the crime. Investigators and criminalists of the Tomsk Region Office of the Investigative Committee arrived at the scene once more and assigned necessary forensic inquiries (a medical, DNA and dactylographic ones). However, considering the character of the crime, it was impossible to find any biological traces. Investigators interviewed the victim and made a subjective portrait of the assailant which matched perfectly the identikit made before.

Criminalists examined both of the crime scenes using a detector of hidden surveillance cameras. Using cutting-edge forensic equipment they installed 47 surveillance cameras, from most of which they then were able to analyze the footage. One of the cameras caught the rapist, but the quality of the footage was too low to make out his face. The investigators had to watch the footage until they found a better frame. The still was spread via the mass media and the Internet.

On 12 September, the regional investigative authority got a phone call from a citizen who had recognized the man on the still as his co-worker from a building site. Employees of the forensic department in cooperation with police operatives checked the man and found out that he was 37 and had been repeatedly convicted, including of a rape. On the same day the man was detained and taken to an investigator. He confessed to the crimes and confirmed it at the crime scenes. The victims recognized him as the rapist.

Soon the man will be charged, and today the investigators are going to request a court to place him in custody pending trial. At the moment investigative operations are underway to collect and register the evidence. The two cases have been joined to form a single lawsuit and the investigation is ongoing. The investigators are also going to check if the man has been involved in other similar crimes.