Grooming gang jailed over sex attacks on vulnerable underage girls | UK | News

An Eastern European grooming ring has been sentenced to 18 months to 14 years in prison. Northumbria Police launched a painstaking investigation into the crimes against six girls aged 13-16 between 2014 and 2019, who were sometimes threatened with alcohol or cocaine before being sexually abused.

The investigation found the victims were targeted by teenagers several years older than them, with the girls sometimes thinking they were in a relationship before older men abused them. Some of the offending was concentrated around Saltwell Park, where the boys would meet to play football. The investigation led to the conviction of four Romanians and an Albanian following an eight-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court in October.

Bogdan Gugiuman, 44, of Westbourne Avenue, Gateshead, was found guilty of three counts of rape and supplying Class A drugs. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and was in his mid-30s and married when he committed the crimes.

Codrin Dura, 27, of Ripon Street, Gateshead, was found guilty of four counts of rape, four counts of sexual activity with a child, blackmail, attempted rape, serious sexual assault, supplying a Class A drug and arranging or facilitating the commission of child sexual offences. He spent 13 years in prison.

Albanian Klaudio Aleksiu, 28, of Windsor Church Terrace, who was found guilty of rape. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

Leonard Paun, 23, of Windsor Avenue, Gateshead, was found guilty of five counts of rape, two counts of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence, sexual activity with a child, sexual assault, supplying Class A drugs and distributing photographs of a child. He was sentenced to five years and one month in prison.

Stefan Ciuraru, 22, of Brinkburn Avenue, Gateshead, was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault, sexual activity with a child and causing or encouraging a child to engage in sexual activity. Due to his youth at the time of the crime, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Judge Tim Gittins said a victim impact statement from one of the victims, who was sexually abused after becoming addicted to cocaine, was “nothing short of haunting”.

Addressing the defendants, he said: “All of you, to a greater or lesser extent, deeply traumatized and psychologically scarred him.”

The judge recognized the courage of all the victims, their resilience and dignity in seeing the case through the court system.

She added: “It’s not my place to say, but I hope they start to see themselves like I do, as survivors and not just victims.”

Earlier, a victim read a statement to the judge in which she said Dura was controlling her.

“It was as if he had cast a spell on me,” he said. “It was like I was being held hostage and had to play a role.”

She added: “I feel like it’s taken so much from me, I’m always trying to bury it.”

Dura took her to his house and raped her, under the pretext that he was going to delete a private photo that he threatened to show to his family.

A second victim read her statement to the court and said: “I was naive and impressionable and this made it easy for me to be trapped.”

The victim, who was addicted to cocaine, said in his statement: “This whole experience has greatly changed my perspective on men for life. I am afraid of all men.

“There are so many things that trigger my pain that I don’t know if I can live a normal life.”

Josh Normanton, on behalf of Dura, said that he came to the UK as a child with his family, who came from Romania as economic immigrants, and that he could not speak English when he arrived.

“He was more immature than his age,” his lawyer said.

“He comes from a family that is hard-working, kind and extremely concerned about him.”

Glenn Gatland, for Paun, said his client came to England only with his mother and that his father later died after joining them. Mr Gatland said he had since become a caring father.

“He is someone who is very capable of rehabilitating,” he said.

Sue Hirst, for Paun’s cousin Gugiuman, said he had previously been of good character and was married with three young boys.

Shada Mellor, on behalf of Aleksiu, said the delay in bringing the case to trial had affected his mental health.

He said he had since moved to the south of England and had a partner and a child.

Ciuraru was said to have limited education and low intelligence, and he hoped to return to Romania.

The judge also praised the police investigation, noting that there had been criticism of “the authorities’ response to such cases and their victims in the past”.

He praised Northumbria Police’s care for the victims in this incident.