Two women have been charged over the killing of a man who they wrongly suspected of being a paedophile, say Russian prosecutors.
Two men are also accused of ‘raping the victim with a metal pipe’ as well as killing him.
Truck driver Dmitry Chikvarkin, 48, who ran his own lorry business, died from horrific head injuries after a brutal sexual attack.
Police say a ten-year-old girl said that she and a three-year-old girl had been “touched below the waist” by Chikvarkin but this was a “lie”.
The children were “joking” with fatal consequences, they say.
Valeria Dunaeva, 25, is accused of causing grievous bodily harm resulting in death in leading the attacks on Chikvarkin.
Sergey Chabin, 34, and Mikhail Ivanov, 29, face the same charge plus sexual assault on the man.
Lawyers for the victim’s family have made a legal challenge over the charges, calling for the three to be charged with murder.
Alina Mikhailova, 29, is accused of ‘threatening murder’.
The women showed “great cruelty and sadistic imagination” when Chikvarkin was killed in a drunken frenzy , said a report citing law enforcement.
Chikvarkin had been asked to drive the children to a woman carer, the investigation found.
A friend said: “He was always ready to help, and this was his mistake.”
But his good deed led to the false accusation.
Chikvarkin’s head wounds inflicted with the same metal pipe were so severe that the priest at his funeral refused to allow relatives to see his face in the coffin.
The victim, who had a six-year-old daughter, was a former police driver described as a "loving father" by his family and as “brave and fearless” by his ex-colleagues.
Dunaeva, Chabin and Ivanov face up to 15 years in jail, while Mikhailova faces a lesser sentence if convicted.
Laywer for the dead man’s family, Dmitry Zhikin, commented: "We disagree with this decision and have filed a motion (for) murder charges.”
