A man accused of raping Barron Trump’s long-distance friend in London allegedly attacked the woman after she referred to the first son as a “sweetheart,” a court heard Friday.
Matvei Rumianstev, who is currently on trial in the UK over the alleged assault, denied beating and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend because he was angry about her friendship with President Trump’s youngest son.
“I was jealous to some extent,” the 22-year-old Russian citizen admitted in court, according to The Guardian.
Prosecutors allege Rumianstev “flew into a rage” when he spotted a FaceTime call coming through from Barron on the young woman’s phone in the early hours of Jan. 18 last year.
Rumianstev allegedly raped the woman after she took the call — and then later sent the woman a text that read: “You started calling him sweetheart, I felt so unwell.”
Rumianstev, however, denied being angry at the time.
He testified that he only answered the last call from Barron in a bid to de-escalate a drunken altercation he had gotten into with his girlfriend.
“I don’t know why I did that, maybe I thought she would realize that her behavior was unreasonable, [that] she wouldn’t behave like this in front of someone else, especially Barron Trump,” he said of his decision to answer the FaceTime in question.
Barron, for his part, frantically called British police after witnessing the alleged violent dust-up on that call.
The young woman at the center of the case had earlier testified that Barron’s intervention saved her life.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Barron and the woman, who met online, had been friends before the alleged attack.
Still, Rumianstev testified Friday that he was used to seeing calls come through on his girlfriend’s phone and “didn’t attach much weight” to the one from Barron.
“What I was really unhappy about was that she was frankly leading [Trump] on,” he said.
“I am being portrayed as a jealous person who can lose his temper due to jealousy. I want to just make clear that her actions towards him were wrong and it was not fair.”
Rumianstev has pleaded not guilty to the string of assault and rape charges.
The White House hasn’t addressed Barron’s involvement in the ongoing case.
