Father makes friend dig his own grave, kill himself for 'sexually abusing' daughter

A man who forced his friend to kill himself after finding out that he had allegedly sexually abused his six-year-old daughter has been jailed for 18 months.

Oleg Sviridov, 32, died from a knife wound sustained during a fight with the girl's father, Vyacheslav Matrosov, in Vintai village in Russia's Samara region. A fight broke out between the two after the father discovered footage of the sex abuse on Sviridov's phone.

The father had also allegedly forced his friend to dig his own grave before the fight and later buried the corpse in the unmarked grave. He reportedly told friends that he made Sviridov dig the grave in an attempt to scare him.

His daughter, now nine-years-old, was heard saying: "Oleg, that's enough, I can't take it anymore. I want to go home." The police have now arrested Matrosov on the suspicion of murder.

However, his arrest led to public outcry, with people demanding his immediate release. The locals had even started a fundraiser to pay for Matrostov's legal fees. A petition demanding his acquittal had received 2,500 signatures.

He has now been convicted of "inciting" his friend to commit suicide by Krasnoglinsky Court in Samara.

His wife told The Sun that they had no idea that Sviridov had been sexually abusing their daughters. She added that one day she found the two men fighting in the bathroom of their house.

"(He) was hysterical, shell-shocked. I had never seen him like that. With his trembling hands, he took out Oleg's phone and showed me a video. I shook all over. I could not believe my eyes that it was our child in the video," she said.

"Then my husband started crying. He kept repeating, 'He is my best friend, I trusted him with our children, I trusted him as myself.'" The father, a former rocket engine factory worker, could have been sent to spend 15 years in prison if he had been convicted of murder.