A car mechanic has gone on trial for killing a convicted paedophile after saving a 14-year-old boy from his clutches.
Vladimir Sankin, 34, faces up to 15 years jail if convicted, despite an outcry in Russia where a petition in his support has been signed by 70,000 people.
He was a passerby when he answered the frantic pleas of a boy, ten, to help his friend, 14, who had been locked inside the flat of Vladimir Zaitsev, 54, in Ufa city.
Vladimir Sankin, pictured with his wife Polina, has gone on trial for killing a convicted paedophile after saving a 14-year-old boy from his clutches
Paedophile Vladimir Zaitsev lies bleeding on the ground after having been beaten by Sankin
The sex offender had been jailed three times previously for attacks on underage children, including his own son.
Sankin says he ran to the apartment and heard the boy crying inside.
He forced his way in and freed the unnamed teenager who had been told by the man to strip naked under the threat of being killed and dismembered if he refused.
After liberating the boy and reuniting him with his friend, Sankin took the man outside and beat him with a wooden stick as he waited for police to arrive.
Sankin, 34, faces up to 15 years jail if convicted, despite an outcry in Russia where a petition in his support has been signed by 70,000 people
Zaitsev, pictured during the beating with severe facial injuries, had been jailed three times previously for attacks on underage children, including his own son
The man fell, and banged his head, suffering injuries from which he later died.
Sankin was formally detained and accused of ‘intentional infliction of grave bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim by negligence’.
‘I didn’t expect him to die at all,’ said the mechanic. ‘I saved two children… from him.’
Sankin has been under house arrest since February but now faces an attempt by state prosecutors to jail him for up to 15 years.
In a video ahead of his trial, he thanks supporters for backing him, and claimed any man would have acted the same way.
Sankin was formally detained and accused of ‘intentional infliction of grave bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim by negligence’
Sankin’s mother Galina Sankina said her son did the right thing and she would have done the same
‘I could not do otherwise in that situation,’ he said.
‘I had a choice – to pass by or to save the kids. Surely every man would do the same in my place.’
His lawyer Shota Gorgadze said Sankin was ‘a simple guy who could not pass by a paedophile and protected children from this rapist.
He said, ‘the earth depends on such ordinary men’, adding that the charges against his client were ‘unfair’.
He vowed: ‘We will prove that such men should be rewarded, not imprisoned.’
The car mechanic’s lawyers Shota Gorgadze (right) and Viktoria Korotaeva (left) have said the charges are ‘unfair’
Well-known surgeon Yevgeny Ionis also backed the accused man, saying he acted on ‘reflex’ to save the boy
Sankin’s mother Galina Sankina said: ‘My son did the right thing…
‘I would do the same, scold me or not.’
Well-known surgeon Yevgeny Ionis also backed the accused man, saying he acted on ‘reflex’ to save the boy and his friend, and he would have done the same.
He said: ‘I am not calling for breaking the law.
‘But… I am the father of three children. And in all children I see a reflection of my own.’
Sankin’s wife Polina Naumova said: ‘I’m entirely on his side for not walking out [on the boys] because no-one knows what would have happened next if he turned a blind eye.’
Others have called on him to be awarded for bravery.
Zaitsev had served sentences of five years, one year and 11 years for previous child sex convictions for ‘sodomy’ and ‘violent sexual acts’.