CrimeWorld

Paedophile’s dungeon discovered where he kept 7-year-old for 52 days

A paedophile has been jailed for 19 years for kidnapping a seven-year-old boy as he got out of his school bus and holding him hostage in a bleak cellar for 52 days. Dmitry Kopylov, 28, has been sent to a strict regime penal colony in Russia.

Kopylov was charged with 62 separate crimes against this child and another earlier victim who was not held hostage. They included ‘committing sodomy and other sexual acts against a young boy’, and making and distributing child pornography. His crimes date back to 2015.

A judge ruled that Kopylov must undergo psychiatric treatment while serving his sentence of 19 years and 11 months in a high-security prison.

The child was rescued and reunited with his parents in November 2020 following a tip-off by Interpol based on intelligence from the West. Russian special forces cut through a steel door and broke a window to enter the lair where he was held, a chilling low-ceilinged basement with bare walls, specially built to hold an abducted child. The ‘brainwashed’ boy ‘laughed with joy’ when officers entered but later cried.

Kopylov was snared after allegedly boasting about holding the boy in chats between paedophiles on the dark web.

The spooky underground bunker with a jail-style bed and a heater was sound insulated beneath Kopylov’s house in Makarikha, Vladimir region, some 185 miles from Moscow. A hatch door led to an even lower level, while the paedophile lived upstairs.

Kopylov told Vesti TV in court that he felt ‘remorse’ for his crimes. ‘I would like to apologise to my victims,’ he said. ‘I did not behave like a human being, but I simply had no other choice.’ He said he would appeal his sentence because ‘I didn’t kill anyone, I didn’t make them disabled’ and he would be held with murderers.

Asked why he felt compelled to kidnap the boy, the paedophile said: ‘I couldn’t take it anymore….I wanted a child for too long.’

Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock said: ‘A young boy is back where he belongs – with his family – thanks to dedicated specialist officers and swift action by authorities around the world.’

But he warned: ‘While we’re truly delighted that this story has a safe ending, many children are still out there awaiting rescue.’

The child is now receiving ‘strong psychological help’, it was revealed.

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Daily Mail
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