On 29 December 2021, the Kirov District Court of St. Petersburg acquitted five defendants in a criminal case involving sexual abuse of children in an orphanage due to lack of evidence. The defendants were released from custody in the courtroom. Stanislav Vinogradov, former director of school No. 565 in Kirovsky district of St. Petersburg, Mikhail Yelin, former deputy director of the children's home, and Pavel Prikashchikov, Kirill Pokalyuka and Andrey Solovyov, former pupils and students of the school, are among those involved in the case.

It should be recalled that the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia completed the investigation into the criminal case against the former director of school No. 565 in Kirovsky District of St Petersburg, Stanislav Vinogradov, former deputy director of the orphanage Mikhail Yelin, former pupils and students of the school Pavel Prikashchikov, Kirill Pokalyuka and Andrei Solovyev in December 2018. Depending on their roles, they were each charged with offences under Article 132 of the Criminal Code (violent acts of a sexual nature).

During the investigation, investigators of the Investigative Committee of Russia established 23 cases of violent acts committed by the accused against children in the Family Upbringing Support Centre No 8 orphanage from 2002 to 2017.

Photographer Alexander Brykov has already been prosecuted and found guilty of committing offences under Part 1 of Article 242.1, Paragraph D of part 2 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code (production and distribution of pornographic materials; violent acts of a sexual nature).

The investigation and the court established that Brykov had brought underage children from the Family Upbringing Support Centre No 8 orphanage to his flat where filmed pornographic materials with their participation and committed violent acts of a sexual nature against the children between 2005 and 2008.

In 2020, a court sentenced Brykov to four years and seven months' imprisonment to be served in a general regime colony.

A massive amount of work was carried out during the preliminary investigation in order to establish all the facts of the criminal offences against the minors. Investigators have identified all the perpetrators and made an appropriate legal assessment of their actions.

The sufficient evidence gathered by the investigation proved to be sufficient to approve the indictment and send the case to the court to be tried on the merits.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed the Head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to examine the circumstances that formed the basis of the acquittal verdict and provide a detailed report. He also instructed his subordinates to initiate the issue of appealing against the court verdict.