[Regnum] A large number of files containing information about minors were discovered on the computer of 38-year-old Pyotr Zhilkin, who confessed to the kidnapping and murder of a nine-year-old boy in St. Petersburg. This was reported by the regional television channel "78," citing sources familiar with the investigation.
The man allegedly filmed the child pornography himself. His purpose for accumulating the footage, which reached 2 terabytes, is being investigated.
"Experts don't believe he intended to sell the video, as he was a wealthy man and had a very profitable business," the channel's sources noted.
Investigators, who hadn't even reviewed half the files, traveled to the Rostov region, where Zhilkin previously lived, to question the alleged victims captured on video. They believe the man had sexual relations with children in Rostov-on-Don.
Nine-year-old Pasha T. went missing on January 30 in the Gorelovo district of southern St. Petersburg after getting into a car near a hypermarket on Tallinn Highway. The boy had been working there cleaning car windows and headlights. His body, with his legs bound, was found on February 3 in a pond near the Lower Shingersky Waterfall in the Leningrad Region. An autopsy determined he had been drowned alive.
The suspect was detained in the Pskov region. Zhilkin told law enforcement that he offered the boy 5,000 rubles for sexual intercourse, but the boy refused and threatened to tell adults. Afterward, the man punched Pasha in the head and drove him to a body of water. During the court hearing, Zhilkin pleaded guilty to the child's murder and was remanded in custody until March 31.