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In Vladimir Region Sergei Kozlov charged with abduction and murder of small Bogdan Prakhov

Based on the evidence gathered by the Vladimir Region investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee Sergei Kozlov, aged 35, from the town of Petushki, mentally disabled of 2nd group has been charged with abduction (paragraph “e” of part 2 of article 123 of the RF Criminal Code) and murder (paragraph “c” of part 2 of article 105) of small Bogdan Prakhov.

It was reported earlier that with assistance of specialists of the Central Office of the Russia’s Investigative Committee the data had been obtained during investigation, which had allowed identifying the criminal. One of the weightiest evidence of his guilt - an experts’ conclusion – was possible to get due to the fact that today the Investigative Committee has unique equipment. Using this, specialists of the Central Office studied the boy’s clothes millimeter by millimeter and discovered biological traces of the assumed murderer. Information that Kozlov’s DNA had matched the traces on the boy’s clothes and other data were the basis to detain Kozlov, who had signed acknowledgement of guilt.

An investigator has checked Kozlov’s testimony in feign circumstances, during which he explained every detail of his crime and pointed out that on 19 June 2012, he was on a walk alone near the village of Gribobo. There he saw two boys, who seemed to him were looking at him not nicely and mocked at him. Not having been able to control his actions, he punched the elder boy, grabbed the smaller one and ran with him to the forest, where he beat the boy’s head several times on a tree trunk. In addition, there have been carried out two identifications and a number of witnesses have been questioned. Kozlov’s testimonies are confirmed by the materials of the criminal case.

The minor witness did not recognize the abductor in Kozlov, but there is objective explanation to that. Considering the stress he was experiencing and special features of children’s memory, he might not have remembered the Kozlov’s features quite well, which is confirmed by not full match of identikit made by the witness, to actual features of the accused and his clothes, the man was wearing on the day of the crime. This conclusion is confirmed by specialists in the area of children’s psychiatry. In addition, over the period of investigation the boy has seen more than 500 people – real and on pictures to be recognized. In this connection the boy has experienced a transformational mix of memory about the abductor’s appearance, about which he said the investigator before the identification procedure.

We should note that the results of identification are not the decisive factor in evaluating the sufficiency of evidence for further prosecution of Kozlov.

Together with these procedures, investigators have gathered materials characterizing Kozlov’s personality. It has been established that in January 1995, in the town of Petushki, he unreasonably attacked an 8-year-old boy, who was playing on a slide, he pushed him into the snow and stabbed him in the back. The investigating bodies have established that Kozlov was involved in the offence against a small child, but the prosecution was dismissed because Kozlov was recognized as of diminished responsibility.

In the period between 1985 and 2005, Kozlov was registered in a hospital and under supervision of specialists in the area of psychiatry. However, he then was crossed off the register due to stabilization of his health and adaptation in the society. Later he several times went to specialists himself complaining about bad headaches and low blood pressure.

In the near future there are planned a number of urgent operations aimed at all-round and unbiased check of the testimonies given by the accused about circumstances of the crime and evaluation of his mental state in the hospital.