Tula schoolboy dies in 1990s pre-trial detention due to investigation error

The 1990s were a difficult period for people and for the country. We know how law enforcement worked then from numerous TV series. However, no artistic fiction can often compete with reality.

Dmitry Plotkin is a true legend of Soviet and Russian investigation. He was born in Ryazan Oblast and started working in investigative bodies right after university. His portfolio includes investigating cases of the Skopin maniac (Viktor Mokhov), the Starozhilovo cannibal (Sergei Sopkin), and murders linked to the «Airapetovskaya» and «Slonovskaya» gangs. For 71.RU, Dmitry Plotkin spoke about a case he once had to handle in Tula Oblast.

In the 1990s, when Plotkin was head of the non-obvious murders group, he was sent on a business trip to Tula Oblast. He was to investigate the case of a young man«s murder in a pre-trial detention center, and the story turned out to be tragic.

“There was a boy — he was in 10th grade, intelligent, he had a modest girlfriend and good parents. And in the same building, a single-story communal apartment for several families, lived a family: a girl about in fourth grade, her mother, and her father, a policeman, who liked to drink.

“The boy had been taking this girl to kindergarten and then to school since childhood. Apparently, at some point hormones played a role, and he touched the schoolgirl in an intimate place with his hands. For her, it was something incomprehensible, she came home and said: ‘Sasha touched me there.’ The girl«s mother went to the police and filed a report about rape, and since the father was an employee, the case was opened quickly. They didn»t even conduct an examination,” — said Dmitry Plotkin.

In those times, a prosecutor could issue an arrest warrant without going to court. In a fairly short time, the 16-year-old boy was sent to a pre-trial detention center under the article for rape, where his cellmates began to abuse him.

One day, it came to the game “Parachutists.”

“They threw the boy on the floor, put a mattress on him, and started jumping on him from the bed. As a result, he suffered a rupture of the gastrointestinal tract, and the boy died. During this time, the female investigator quietly conducted an examination, which confirmed that there was no rape — the girl was a virgin.

“The case could have been qualified as lewd acts, but not as rape. This led to corresponding treatment from his cellmates. The boy was constantly humiliated, forced to do very bad things. Did he deserve such punishment?” — Plotkin still wonders.

According to him, the Tula case was very difficult, and the murder investigation was long. In the end, a police officer was convicted of negligence for suspecting the boy under the wrong article, and the cellmates who killed the boy were given additional sentences for murder.

“I had to communicate with such maniacs and rapists! There are different situations, but sometimes they turn out very ambiguous. This tragic story made me reflect. I realized that life is much more complicated than books or textbooks,” — concluded Dmitry Plotkin.