72-year-old pedophile sentenced to 16 years in prison
The Mikhailovsky District Court handed down the sentence to the man.
In the Mikhailovsky district of the Volgograd region, a 72-year-old pensioner has been sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment to be served in a strict-regime colony for molesting young children over several years. According to the parents of the victims, he did not admit his guilt and insisted that the children approached him on their own.
Recall that the situation in Sebrovo village became known on 27 January, when residents posted a video appeal to the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin. They asked him to protect their children, whom a man of Roma ethnicity was molesting.
«On 22 January 2025, a terrible incident happened with my daughter,» said the mother of one of the affected girls. «A local resident of the village dragged her into our local cultural center and tried to molest her. He lifted her jacket and tried to get into her pants. Our authorities did not respond to this. I am her mother. This all happened before my eyes. I saw it, I was coming from the bus, I ran and managed to prevent the crime he wanted to commit. He offered me money so that I wouldn’t report him. His wife covers for him. She works as a cleaner in our school. There are many cases. There have been complaints about this man of Roma ethnicity. He was released the very next day, and he started walking around our village and looking for girls.»
Only after the publicity was a criminal case initiated against the man under Article 132 of the Russian Criminal Code, «Sexual assault committed against a person under the age of 14.»
Today, 23 October, the Mikhailovsky District Court handed down the sentence to the man. As parents told V1.RU, the term fully satisfies them, but this does not mean that they can now stop worrying about their children.
«We are satisfied with the sentence. It’s just right for what he did. He does not admit his guilt. Regarding the incident with my daughter at the cultural center, he says that she followed him on her own, and she approached him at the cultural center. And he remembered that he had candies and wanted to give them to her. And I supposedly misunderstood his intent. Although from our school cameras, it’s visible that he grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the cultural center. He says, if I wanted to drag her away, I would have dragged her home or behind the cultural center,» one of the parents recounts.
According to the parents, the defendant’s relatives, including his wife, continue to live in the village. Although, as some residents say, after what happened, she disowned him. She was not in court either.
«He used to walk past our house, we greeted him and couldn’t even think that he could do such a thing. Although he has children and grandchildren. We couldn’t even imagine that this old man, 72 years old, could do such a thing… I couldn’t wrap my head around it until I saw it with my own eyes,» the woman says. «We still fear, we escort the children out of habit, we’re taught, it’s still scary after this.»
