Gateshead grooming gang members jailed for rape and sexual assaults | Crime
Five men who were part of a “horrific” grooming gang who raped and sexually assaulted schoolgirls in a park have been jailed for between 18 months and 14 years.
The men were selling alcohol and cocaine to their victims, targeting vulnerable girls in Saltwell Park in Gateshead.
Following an eight-week trial at Newcastle crown court, the men were found guilty of 30 charges, including rape, sexual assault and blackmail, between 2014 and 2019.
DCI Graeme Barr of Northumbria Police paid tribute to the victims, then aged 13 to 16, who showed “courage, composure and dignity” during an “extremely long” and complex investigation.
“The impact on them of what happened to them is immeasurable,” Barr said. “They were subjected to the most horrific insults. Every child has the right to grow up unharmed, but these girls had their childhood taken away from them in the most brutal ways.”
On Friday, a judge sentenced four Romanian and one Albanian men to between 18 months and 14 years in prison.
Men:
Bogdan Gugiuman, 44, of Gateshead, was found guilty of three counts of rape and supplying class A drugs. He spent 14 years in prison.
Codrin Dura, 27, of Gateshead, was found guilty of four counts of rape, four counts of sexual activity with a child, blackmail, attempted rape, serious sexual assault, supplying class A drugs and arranging or facilitating the commission of child sexual offences. He spent 13 years in prison.
Klaudio Aleksiu, 28, of Windsor, who was convicted of rape. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
Leonard Paun, 23, of Gateshead, was found guilty of five counts of rape, two counts of arranging or facilitating child sexual offences, 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 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.
Barr said police began investigating after complaints from two girls who did not know each other in April and May 2019.
He said a complex harassment investigation was launched in July of that year and revealed that there was “a group of men who knew each other” who committed crimes against multiple victims.
Barr said a significant effort has been made to gain the trust of victims. “The crime ranged from sexual assaults, such as touching, to the most serious rape crimes, including multiple people raping the same victim,” he said.
