David Barnes has been sentenced to 21 years in prison (Picture: east2west)
A Texan man has been jailed in Russia for ‘molesting his own sons’ despite authorities in the US finding no evidence to charge him.
David Thomas Barnes was found guilty of ‘actions of a sexual nature against a person under 14’ at a closed court in Moscow, based on his Russian ex-wife’s testimony.
The US citizen has been sentenced to 21 years imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony.
The allegations of child abuse against him had previously been filed in Montgomery County, Texas and examined by law enforcement – but US police found no basis to charge him.
His ex-wife Svetlana Koptyaeva, 43, claimed Barnes had sexually abused their sons between 2014 and 2018.
The children were born in 2010 and 2014.
His ex-wife Svetlana Koptyaeva claimed Barnes had abused their two sons (Picture: east2west)
Barnes thanked America for their ‘prayers and support’ at a previous court hearing (Picture: Mash/east2west)
Barnes denied the allegations (Picture: east2west)
Barnes, 65, pleaded not guilty in Moscow, where he’s been held in pre-trial detention since January 2022.
Barnes was found guilty by the Savelovsky court in Moscow after a trial which was closed to the media and US embassy officials.
A spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee said: ‘The investigation and court established that from January 2014 to March 2018, the accused, while in a residential building in the United States, committed…acts of a sexual nature against his two children.
’The Savelovsky court of Moscow sentenced 65-year-old US citizen David Thomas Barnes to 21 years in a penal colony, finding him guilty of sexually abusing his own children.’
More Trending
Barnes had travelled to Russia in 2021 to see his children, who he said had been illegally taken out of the US in 2019, where he was arrested.
In the US, charges were filed against his ex-wife as she was accused of felony interference relating to child custody, for allegedly taking her sons out of the country during a custody dispute.
Ms Koptyaeva claimed the children had been abused and ‘spoke the truth’ due to the ‘suffering and pain’ they experienced.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.