The youngest son of the US president, Barron Trump, was hailed by a British judge for his “lifesaving” actions after he witnessed a friend being attacked and managed to raise the alarm.
A Russian man has been jailed for four years for his assault on the woman, which was witnessed on a video call by Mr Trump.
Matvei Rumiantsev drunkenly beat up the victim when he became jealous of her blossoming friendship with Mr Trump, then aged 18, after she met him through social media.
During the assault, Rumiantsev, then aged 21, answered a FaceTime call on the victim’s phone from Mr Trump, and turned the camera to show her crying on the floor.
In a 999 call to City of London Police on 18 January last year, Mr Trump pleaded for help for the woman, telling the operator: “It’s really an emergency.
“I’m calling from the US, uhh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up.”
The woman herself managed to call 999 after enduring violence for an hour, telling the operator: “Please help me, I’m gonna get killed.”
Mr Justice Bennathan said: “Mr Trump properly and responsibly, despite being in the United States, made sure the emergency services here were called, and he told them what he had seen.”
Evidence showed that Rumiantsev, who is described as a “trained fighter”, had repeatedly struck the woman over the course of an hour and dragged her by her hair when she tried to seek help.
After his arrest, Rumiantsev made “repeated efforts” to try to avoid justice by convincing the woman to withdraw her allegations, via a phone call from the police station and a letter to a friend while he was in prison.
Rumiantsev, who lived in Canary Wharf, east London, was convicted at trial of assault and also perverting the course of justice, relating to a letter he sent from prison attempting to persuade the woman to drop her allegations.
At Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, Rumiantsev was sentenced to four years in prison, with the hearing told he is a “man given to jealousy” and has a temper.
The judge also criticised Rumiantsev for being “totally unrepentant” and for failing to accept blame for the attack.
“Your lack of insight and empathy was apparent at trial. You continue to try to blame the complainant for everything that has happened,” he said.
He pointed to a letter from Rumiantsev and said his actions that night had been “inappropriate”, telling him: “That’s a very long way from you facing up to the simple truth of what happened that night.”
The jury acquitted Rumiantsev of two charges of rape, assault, and intentional strangulation.
The court heard that Rumiantsev and the woman had been drinking together on the evening of 17 January 2025, and into the early hours of the next day. The prosecution said that Rumiantsev, who comes from a wealthy family and has had martial arts training, assaulted the woman that day, including hitting her in the face.
When he answered her phone during the beating to a FaceTime call from Mr Trump, he turned the screen to show the woman, who was crying and screaming on the floor.
In his phone call to police, Mr Trump was initially coy about how he knew the woman, and when asked, he replied: “I mean, these details don’t matter, she’s getting beat up.”
After being admonished by the operator for being “rude” and not answering questions, Mr Trump said: “I met her on social media.”
The court heard that Rumiantsev became aware of the woman’s friendship with Mr Trump in October 2024, and during questioning at trial he described himself as “jealous to some extent”. He added: “What I was really unhappy about was that she was frankly leading him [Barron Trump] on.”
In a victim impact statement, the woman who was assaulted said she “withdrew from the world entirely” in the aftermath, and that she felt “humiliated, afraid and ashamed”.
She added that she is living with “constant terror and uncertainty about the defendant’s release”.
Mr Trump was a key witness in the case, and sent an email to police last May describing the “very brief” sight he had of the assault as it unfolded.
“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,” he wrote. “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 five to seven seconds.”
The victim of the attack said she believes that Rumiantsev deliberately answered the FaceTime call and showed her crying and screaming on the floor as a form of punishment.
Prosecutor Serena Gates KC said: “She thinks the phone call was answered, and the assault shown on video, because the defendant wanted an audience.”
The judge praised Mr Trump’s actions, saying he had “properly and responsibly” alerted the emergency services despite being in the US.
Mr Trump grew up in the public eye as the only child of Donald and Melania Trump, and was rumoured to be helping his father with his election strategy in 2024.
His older brother Eric Trump said in November 2024 that Barron had persuaded his father to go on a podcast tour as part of an effort to court Gen Z and millennial voters.
