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In Kemerovo Region, man to stand trial for killing 12-year-old girl 10 years ago

The Kemerovo Region Office of the Investigative Committee has finished criminal proceedings against a 44-year-old resident of the town of Mezhdurechensk. He is charged with crimes under Part 3, item “c” of Article 131 (rape using helpless state of the victim who was under 14 years of age), Part 3, item “c” of Article 132 (sexual abuse), Part 2, items “j” and “c” of Article 105 (murder of a minor using their helpless state committed to conceal another crime or to facilitate committing one and aggravated by a rape and sexual abuse), part 3 of Article 30, Part 3, item “c” of Article 131 of the RF Penal Code (an attempted rape) – version of 2006.

According to investigators, on 20 January 2007, parents worrying that their 12-year-old daughter had not come home, went to search her. The girl’s father noticed that the basement door in their block of flats was opened and looked inside. He saw there his daughter’s backpack. He searched the basement and found the girl’s dead body with traces of violent death. An investigative team established that the girl had died of strangulation. The body also had traces of sexual abuse.

Despite all the steps taken it was not possible to immediately identify the perpetrator. However, the work to solve the crime went on for years. Over that period of time, the investigators together with officers of the Kemerovo Region Office of the Interior Ministry checked more than 7 thousand residents of the region on involvement in the crime and ran some 700 DNA tests. It should be noted that biological samples and fingerprints were taken from persons who had committed similar crimes across Russia to be then matched with the traces left on the objects found on the crime scene. The results of this meticulous and continuous work were received only in 2016. A local resident was detained for a crime against property, and later it turned out that he unofficially worked in housing utensils. Investigator ordered that crime detection agents of Mezhdurechensk checked if the man had been involved in any other crimes. The man’s fingerprints matched those found on the crime scene. DNA sample which was immediately taken from the man also matched that of the killer. Under the load of evidence against him he confessed to the crime.

The man told the investigators that on 20 January 2007, he had gone in a building to get warm. There he saw the girl and decided to rape her. He threatened her with a knife and took her to the basement. There he taped her hands and mouth, raped her and took off. Looking into that crime the investigators revealed another one the man had committed about 2 weeks before that. He had met a 12-year-old girl who asked him some money to pay a bus fare. He promised to give her the money and took her to the basement in a block of flats. He taped her and tied to a pipe. The girl asked for food and the man decided to go to buy some. When the man had left, the girl managed to get out of her coat and fled. She was an inmate of an orphanage and had a negative personal characteristic. She used to make up some stories to explain her leaving the facility so nobody believed her when she said about the man.

During all that time the man had lived in the region without registration or official employment. He lived at his relatives’ or in rented flats. The accused was put in custody pending trial. The man was tested and the psychiatric examination showed that at the moment of the crime he had had no mental disorder and had been perfectly capable of appreciating his actions. He was diagnosed with pedophilia. The case has 50 files.

The investigators have enough evidence so the criminal case with the signed indictment will soon be referred to court.