A Russian man has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after Barron Trump told UK police he had seen a woman being beaten up on a video call.
Matvei Rumiantsev, 23, received two years for assault and two years for perverting the course of justice after writing to the woman from prison following the attack, asking her to withdraw her allegations.
Trump, the US president’s youngest child, contacted officers when he was in the US to say his friend had been attacked in London in January 2025, the trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Prosecutors said Rumiantsev had been jealous of the woman’s friendship with Trump.
The trial heard that Trump, now 20, called the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on 18 January last year and contacted UK police shortly afterwards.
“I’m calling from the US, uh I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up,” he said, according to a transcript of the call released by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Asked by the operator how he knew the woman, Trump said: “I don’t think these details matter, she’s getting beat up but OK fine, also I met her on social media, I don’t think that matters.”
The operator responded: “Can you stop being rude and actually answer my questions?”
A few months later, in May 2025, Trump told police in an email that what he saw had been “very brief indeed but indeed prevalent”.
The then 19-year-old said his video call to the woman had been picked up by “a shirtless man with darkish hair”.
This view lasted “maybe one second” before the camera flipped to “the victim getting hit while crying”, he told police, adding: “This whole interaction had lasted five to seven seconds.”
Jurors heard that Rumiantsev and the woman had been drinking together on the evening of 17 January and into the next morning.
The prosecution said he assaulted the woman on 18 January 2025, including hitting her in the face.
Judge Mr Justice Bennathan KC had cautioned the jury not to rely on Trump’s account as the main basis for a conviction, noting he had not given evidence under oath or been cross-examined.
Rumiantsev, when asked during cross-examination whether he was jealous of men the victim might speak to, said: “What I was really unhappy about was that she was frankly leading him [Trump] on.”
Mr Justice Bennathan KC told Rumiantsev the trial was about whether he “attacked her or not”.
Rumiantsev responded: “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 was wrong and it was not fair.”
He added: “I was jealous to some extent.”
Rumiantsev was found not guilty of one count of rape and intentional strangulation, and another of rape and assault alleged to have occurred in November 2024. He has already served two years in custody.