Romanian man from Reading jailed in Russia for 15 years on espionage charge
David Adrian Kercso, a 23-year-old Romanian national who had been living in Reading, was sentenced in Russia to 15 years in prison for espionage. His family says he travelled to Georgia in 2024 to meet a woman he had met online, but was arrested in Abkhazia and later transferred to Russian custody.
Kercso says in letters that captors forced him to memorise a confession and promised he would be sent home if he recited it on camera. Abkhazian authorities released footage of that confession in December 2024; Russian security services later published arrest footage. Court records and analysis of the video indicate the Russian footage was staged in Sochi months after his detention began, rather than showing his arrest.
In short
- Reading resident David Kercso was sentenced to 15 years in Russia.
- His family says he travelled east to meet an online girlfriend.
- Court records indicate Russian arrest footage was filmed months later.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Young man leaves his parents’ Reading home to live with online girlfriend in Eastern Europe… and has now been abducted by Russia and tortured into ‘confessing’ he is a ‘spy for Ukraine’”.