News

Jul 11, 2023

Russian Vladimir Cheskidov accused of keeping female sex slave

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission. A Russian “maniac” allegedly kept a woman as a sex slave for 14 years in a makeshift dungeon, where he savagely beat her and raped her more

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

A Russian “maniac” allegedly kept a woman as a sex slave for 14 years in a makeshift dungeon, where he savagely beat her and raped her more than 1,000 times — as he is also accused of butchering another woman.

Vladimir Cheskidov, 51, was arrested in the Chelyabinsk region in the remote Ural Mountains after a 33-year-old woman, identified only by her first name, Ekaterina, escaped from his home in the village of Smoleno on Monday.

The woman told police that Cheskidov had kept her in captivity since 2009 and would only let her out of a padlocked bedroom with bars on the windows to perform house chores at knifepoint.

Ekaterina also claimed to have been repeatedly tortured and brutally beaten for any minor transgression.

A search of Cheskidov’s one-story house yielded a collection of sex toys, muzzles and CDs containing pornography, local media outlets reported.

In a horrific twist, Ekaterina also alleged that Cheskidov fatally stabbed a woman named Oksana, whom he referred to as his “wife,” in 2011 — and then forced her to help him dispose of Oksana’s body.

The Investigative Committee of Chelyabinsk confirmed the recovery of human remains in the basement of Cheskidov’s home.

He faces charges of murder, rape and kidnapping.

Cheskidov’s mother, 72-year-old Valentina Cheskidova, who lived with her son and his suspected sex slave, has also been arrested for her role in the woman’s kidnapping, reported Russian news channel 74.ru.

During a custody hearing Tuesday, Cheskidov, looking haggard and unshaven, broke down in tears and denied any wrongdoing, telling a judge that he and Ekaterina shared a “mutual love” for one another.

But the 33-year-old victim told the police a very different story.

According to Ekaterina, her harrowing ordeal began one night in the fall of 2009, when she, then age 19, met the then-37-year-old Cheskidov at a bus depot in the city of Chelyabinsk.

The woman said Cheskidov invited her over to his house for drinks — but when they got there, he allegedly pulled a knife on his guest and declared that she was his hostage.

The man reportedly was looking for a young woman to kidnap “who would likely not be reported missing,” so he picked Ekaterina, who came from a troubled, low-income family, had a homely appearance and was walking with a limp caused by her congenital clubfoot, reported the Telegram channel Shot.

Ekaterina told police she spent the next 14 years mostly inside a bedroom secured with a heavy barn padlock.

Cheskidov would only let her out to cook, clean and take care of his elderly mother — but even then, she said, her captor would follow her around brandishing a knife so she would not try to escape.

Whenever Cheskidov, who is unemployed, left the house, he would cover Ekaterina’s mouth with duct tape and tie her to a beam so that she could not cry for help and try to flee, according to local reporting.

Speaking to investigators, Ekaterina said Cherkisov would regularly rape her. She could not say how many times the man had forced himself on her over the years, but she estimated that it was more than a thousand, reported Shot.

Ekaterina also claimed that Cheskidov forced her to drink alcohol and battered her over the head so savagely that after a while she forgot all her relatives’ contact information.

Ekaterina’s father died before she was born, and she lost her mother while she was still a baby. She has an older sister living in the area, who reportedly waited nine years to report her missing.

The 33-year-old told police that at one point, Cheskidov brought another woman to his house and introduced her as his “wife” — although the newcomer, named Oksana, later admitted to Ekaterina that she and Cheskidov were not married.

During Tuesday’s court hearing, Cheskidov’s mother told the judge that her son is legally married to a woman from Ekaterinburg. The couple have not cohabitated in years but were not formally divorced.

In 2011, Oksana and Cheskidov allegedly got into a fight, and the woman tried to call for help. Enraged, Cheskidov allegedly grabbed a knife and repeatedly stabbed Oksana, killing her.

Ekaterina claimed that her captor then forced her to help him cut up the woman’s body and stuff the remains into a large pot, which he then buried in the cellar.

An autopsy performed on the remains found on Cheskidov’s property this week found that the victim possibly died as a result of a stabbing.

Ekaterina’s nightmare finally came to an end this week, when Cheskidov, who had been drinking heavily in recent months, suffered an alcohol-induced psychotic episode.

His mother, possibly fearing for her own safety, called for help, and he was carted away to a mental health institution.

In the commotion, the 51-year-old reportedly forgot to lock the door behind him, and his mother urged Ekaterina to escape, telling her that “she might not get another such opportunity.”

After emerging from the house where she had been kept for 14 years, Ekaterina went to find her sister, whom she found living nearby. The sister then called the authorities.

The judge on Tuesday found Cheskidov fit for trial and ordered him jailed for two months. His mother, however, was released.

Speaking outside the courthouse, Cheskidova, a widowed former psychiatric hospital staffer, told reporters that Ekaterina had “glommed onto” her son and lived with him “willingly.”

She added that the alleged victim behaved “like a queen,” refusing to do anything or find a job.

Neighbors in the village described Cheskidov as a recluse who was usually seen stumbling around drunk with a hood pulled low over his head, or watching children on the local playground.

The 51-year-old has a criminal history, which includes a 1989 robbery conviction. If found guilty of murder and the other charges, Cheskidov could be looking at 25 years in a penal colony.