The new judge will consider the case: the acquittal was canceled for the man accused of raping his daughter

The Tatarstan Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of 27-year-old Bugulma resident Sergei Kukushkin, who was accused of sexual assault against his one and a half year old daughter, and sent his case back for a new trial.

The meeting was closed to journalists, and neither the accused nor his wife, Anna Kukushkina, who insisted on her husband's innocence, were not present. 

“There was little experience caring for a daughter”

As explained by RT herself Kukushkina, neither she nor her husband had the opportunity to come from Bugulma to Kazan. However, according to her, she does not worry about the fact that the sentence has been canceled. 

“Even if the case is raised again, there will be no evidence of guilt, because the husband did not commit this,” she said.

Sergei Kukushkin himself also insists on his innocence, despite the fact that there is his confession in the case.

“When they put me in a temporary detention center (temporary detention center), where I was waiting for a trial, a man came to me, either a police officer or an investigator. First he asked me how it was that evening when the daughter was taken to the hospital, and then he told his version: I was supposedly nervous, drunk, freaked out and deliberately put two fingers into it. He said that if I write a confession under his dictation, they will reduce my term or give me a condition. At the trial, I refused these testimonies, ”said Kukushkin RT. 

He also denies that he was drunk on the day of the incident. According to him, that evening he drank a bottle of beer, but remained sober. At the same time, he notes that on that day he was the first to engage in a little girl.

“Before that, my wife was always nearby and helped, so I had little experience caring for my daughter,” he said.

It is worth noting that although Kukushkin had previously fallen into the field of law enforcement - he was accused of stealing a bicycle - the family was not registered for preventive maintenance. Now they are checked weekly by guardianship officers.

“They look at the products in the refrigerator, the condition of the children, is it clean in the apartment. While they did not make any comments to me, they just said that it was necessary to change the wallpaper, because the youngest daughter painted them. But this is normal - these are children, ”Anna Kukushkina added.

In addition to the one and a half year old girl, two older children of 6 and 12 years old are brought up in the family.

Justification and Protest

According to the investigation, the incident occurred on October 27 last year. That day, Sergei Kukushkin was left at home alone with three children.

At about 23:00 he called his wife and said that the youngest daughter began to bleed. The child was taken to a local hospital, the gynecologist found in the girl genital injuries that could speak of violence against her. Doctors reported this to the police.

After checking against Kukushkin, a criminal case was opened under Art. 132 of the Criminal Code (“Violent acts of a sexual nature against a person under the age of 14”). The defendant was threatened with imprisonment from 12 to 20 years. 

Kukushkin himself denied guilt and claimed that he accidentally injured his daughter during a diaper change. Also, the girl’s mother’s side took her husband’s side: she said that he accidentally injured his daughter.

However, in mid-June, the Bugulma City Court acquitted Kukushkin, not finding the corpus delicti in his actions, "because he did not try to satisfy sexual needs at the expense of his daughter."

The acquittal caused a wide public outcry. More than 19 thousand people signed up for a petition on the network with a demand to severely punish a man.

The city prosecutor's office appealed against the verdict in the Supreme Court of Tatarstan.

The case will be considered by another judge

As explained to RT by the deputy city prosecutor Nikolai Vdovin, now there is no question of an additional investigation.

“The case was returned to be considered in a different composition of the court. No additional investigative actions will be carried out, ”he explained.

Earlier, prosecutors noted that the investigation provided the court with sufficient evidence of the guilt of Sergei Kukushkin.

“The Supreme Court found that all the arguments of the prosecutor’s office that the acquittal should be quashed,” Ruslan Galiyev, senior assistant to the prosecutor of the Republic of Tatarstan, told RT.

In addition, he noted that the trial court did not assess the fact that the child was slightly injured in health, the source added.