Rape accused answered Barron Trump video-call during altercation, court told

A man accused of raping a friend of the son of the US president said, “I don’t know what went through my head”, when he answered a video-call from Barron Trump during an altercation, a court has heard.

Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court accused of assault and two counts of rape, among other charges, against the alleged victim.

Jurors heard Rumiantsev and the woman had been drinking together on the evening of January 17 2025 and into the early hours of the next day.

Rumiantsev said they had consensual sex twice in that time.

Giving evidence on Thursday, the defendant told jurors that before he answered a call from the US president’s son on the alleged victim’s phone, the woman had been “in a stage of complete breakdown”, partly because she had been drinking.

“She was just completely hysterical crying, screaming, shouting at me,” said Rumiantsev, who wore a blue suit and white shirt in the dock.

“I noticed her phone next to me on the sofa and it was ringing with a Barron Trump face call,” the defendant told the court.

“I don’t know what went through my head but I answered yes.

“At that point I was standing up, I stepped away from her maybe for a couple metres… I answered the call and I immediately put the camera towards her. I don’t know why I did that.

“Maybe I thought she would realise that her behaviour was unreasonable, that she wouldn’t behave like this in front of someone else.”

Prosecutors allege Rumiantsev strangled the woman that evening, and later she called the police.

The Russian national was arrested on the morning of January 18 2025 and taken into custody.

Jurors have heard Donald Trump’s 19-year-old son was contacted by police investigating the allegations in April 2025 after he contacted British police shortly after the video call.

In a transcript of the call he made to the emergency services, Mr Trump said: “Oh I’m calling from the US, uh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up.”

Mr Trump replied to investigating police in May in an email which said “what I saw was very brief indeed but indeed prevalent”, the court heard.

“I didn’t expect her to pick up due to the difference in the time zone to the fact I am in the USA, the phone was answered but not by her, to my dismay,” the email continued.

“The individual who picked up the phone was a shirtless man with darkish hair, although I didn’t get a good look, this view lasted maybe one second and I was racing with adrenaline.

“The camera was then flipped to the victim getting hit while crying, stating something in Russian. The guy had hung up. This whole interaction had lasted 5 to 7 seconds.”

The defendant, who at the time worked as a receptionist, is accused of one count of rape between January 17 and 18 2025 and another count between November 1 and 30 2024.

Rumiantsev, who said he has experience in freestyle wrestling, accepted that the alleged victim is a lot smaller than him but denied ever strangling, hitting or kicking her.

He told jurors he grabbed the woman’s arms on January 18 to prevent her from hitting him.

Earlier on Thursday, the court heard Rumiantsev became aware of the alleged victim’s friendship with Mr Trump in October 2024.

The defendant told the jury that on November 3 2024 he and the alleged victim had a disagreement.

Rumiantsev said: “I started to explain that I felt upset as well about her talking to Barron Trump.

“I was in no way controlling but I was trying to make her know that if she feels unwell seeing messages I had with girls 10 years ago, she could maybe understand how I felt when she was sat there this moment texting someone else.”

Rumiantsev denies assault, actual bodily harm, intentional strangulation, perverting the course of justice and two counts of rape, in charges dating between November 1 2024 and January 23 2025.

The trial continues.