Altai teen alleges abuse by parents on TV show
On 20 January, the Channel One program Male/Female (16+) aired a real family drama, the main character of which was 17-year-old (at the time of filming) Diana Kharitonova from Altai Krai. The girl stated her desire to terminate her father and mother«s parental rights in order to get an apartment as an orphan.
‘He could beat me with a poker’
Diana grew up in the Talmenka district and now lives with her aunt because she cannot get along with her parents. According to her, her father, an invalid who lost his hand in an industrial accident, works at a sawmill, and her mother is a saleswoman in a local store. The girl claims that her parents did not care for her and allegedly subjected her to violence.
According to the girl, the situation worsened after her father returned to the family in 2019. Previously, when he was not there, everything was calm. In 2015, the family moved from Novosibirsk to Altai Krai to escape domestic violence, but after the father«s return, the conflicts resumed.
Diana recalls terrifying episodes from her childhood:
‘They fought, my father choked my mother, hit her in the head. I was about five then, my brother and I sat in the corner and cried. When I got older, he started laying hands on me too — he could come up and beat me with a broom, a poker, sometimes he was ready to pour a kettle of hot water on me, burned documents, threw me out of the house in the autumn.’
The girl showed a broken phone screen, which, according to her, her father broke when she tried to record another incident.
‘The last time, he flew at me from the house with a shovel, and when I took my phone out of my pocket to film everything, he knocked it out of my hands,’ Diana said in the studio.
Staged kidnapping and parents« response
In the studio, Diana admitted that she once staged her own kidnapping to attract her parents« attention. However, Diana»s mother, Maria Kharitonova, presented her version of events. She said that her daughter allegedly ran away to a boy in a neighboring village, turned off her phone, and then made up a story about being kidnapped. Maria claims that the family is tired of Diana«s behavior and believes she is driven by selfish motives related to housing.
The girl«s mother stated that Diana is ‘not a very good daughter.’ She also said that Diana allegedly raised her hand against her and did not want to do household chores. At the same time, she denies that the father ever beat her and her daughter. The woman shifts the responsibility for poor upbringing to ‘bad company’ and Diana»s teenage infatuation.
Authorities« reaction
Initially, the guardianship and trusteeship authorities of the Talmenka district, as well as the school where Diana studied, found no complaints about the Kharitonov family. Specialists and teachers characterized the parents positively.
After the program aired, law enforcement organized a check on the facts presented in the show. The press service of the Investigative Committee (SK) of Altai Krai reported that a procedural check is being conducted under Article 117 of the Russian Criminal Code (torture). A legal assessment will also be given to the actions (or inaction) of the prevention system authorities. The head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, requested a report on the progress of the check.
