A man accused of raping a woman in London denied he was angry when she received a call from Donald Trump’s son.
According to The Guardian, Barron Trump, the youngest son of the US president, was on a video call in January last year with the woman, who cannot be named, when he allegedly witnessed her being assaulted by a man in London and alerted police.
Matvei Rumiantsev, a 22-year-old Russian citizen from east London, is accused of assault and two counts of rape, among other charges. He denies all charges.
Rumiantsev, under cross-examination at Snaresbrook crown court on Friday, denied being angry about the incoming FaceTime call from Trump.
“It was hard for me not to be jealous,” he said when questioned by the prosecutor, Serena Gates. When pressed as to whether he had been angry or jealous, Rumiantsev said he was “quite used to her receiving calls” and “didn’t attach much weight to that one day. I wasn’t angry, but I’ll be honest I was quite exhausted,” he said.
Rumiantsev told the court that the woman was in a “hysterical state” when Trump called. During the exchange with the alleged victim, the defendant said he had “wanted to make her understand what she was doing was wrong”.
Rumiantsev was asked under cross-examination if he had been jealous of men that the woman might have spoken to. He said: “What I was really unhappy about was that she was frankly leading [Trump] on.”
Justice Bennathan KC told Rumiantsev the trial was about whether “you attacked her or not”. Rumiantsev told the court, “I am being portrayed as a jealous person who can lose his temper due to jealousy. I want to just make clear that her actions towards him were wrong and it was not fair. I was jealous to some extent.”
The defendant allegedly raped the woman after spotting several missed calls on her phone from Trump during the day.
