A Romanian grooming gang led by a ‘smirking pimp’ have been jailed for raping and sexually abusing 10 women.
Ringleader Marian Cumpanasoiu, 38, and four associates drugged their victims – aged between 16 and 30 – at flats across Dundee between 2021 and 2022.
Cumpanasoiu, described as a ‘winking, smirking pip’ who behaved with a ‘predatory nature’, was jailed for 24 years.
Christian Urlateanu, 41, Alexandra Bugonea, 35, Remus Stan, 35, and Cataline Dobre, 45, were also locked up following a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow today.
Police Scotland’s investigation uncovered that the gang’s activities focused on the trafficking of woman to Dundee from eastern Europe to work as prostitutes.
But officers found vulnerable local women were also being groomed with gifts and drugs, including crack cocaine.
Judge Lord Scott stated that a number of the group ‘deflected and minimised’ their offending.
He said: ‘Over a 15-month period each of you participated in the serious sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable and mostly young women in the Dundee area.
‘There were various reasons for their vulnerability including difficult family circumstances and use of drugs.
‘By offering them an unending supply of mostly free crack cocaine you exacerbated their vulnerabilities and proceeded to exploit them for your own sexual gratification and in some cases for financial gain.’
Jurors previously heard harrowing testimony about how the gang preyed on their vulnerable victims, most of whom were already troubled by personal issues.
They would be plied with whisky and crack cocaine as well as being made to take part in sleazy ‘sex games’.
There were said to be so many young women ‘passing through’ that the gang struggled to remember who they all were.
Cumpanasoiu, who was described as behaving towards women in a ‘predatory nature’, was found guilty of 10 charges of rape.
He was also convicted of a charge under the Human Trafficking Act, by forcing a woman into prostitution, and two charges of brothel keeping.
One victim was said to have been sold a ‘pipe dream’ of how she could make ‘lots of money’ from selling her body.
Meanwhile, Stan was found guilty of four rapes and Dobre found guilty of two rapes.
Alexandra Bugonea was convicted of one rape and illegal sexual activity with another.
One video was found of a woman climbing a tree. Cumpanasoiu was said to have threatened: ‘Because you do not make money, you stay all day in the tree.’
Judge Scott continued: ‘No doubt you assumed rightly for some time that the drug related lifestyles of the women meant that you were not reported or detected.
‘To an extent, that attitude and delusions of impunity persisted in the background reports before me with continuing efforts to use the vulnerability of the women to try to attack their credibility. These attitudes do you no good at this stage and aggravate matters.
‘It maybe you thought that no one cared for your victims meaning you could do whatever you wanted to them without consequence. If so, events have proved you wrong.
‘Each of the women found the strength to give evidence despite their difficulties and have taken steps to move on from that stage in their lives.
‘I commend them for having taken back control of their lives to the extent that they were able to do that and testify about the abuse they suffered at your hands.
‘It’s clear the jury understandably and overwhelmingly accepted the vast majority of their evidence and rejected your unconvincing denials and claims of consent.
‘In contrast to your evidence, the women were careful, credible and convincing. Your victims are now survivors albeit they are permanently damaged by what you did to them.
‘There is no suitable alternative to custody due to gravity of the crimes which involve a catalogue of serious sexual exploitative and abusive conduct upon vulnerable women.’
There was also grim testimony of how Urlateanu, Stan and Dobre gang-raped one woman. She was preyed upon having gone to a ‘party’ at a flat in Dundee.
This victim recalled being given a substance which made her feel ‘rotten’ before being attacked by the trio.
His KC Gillian Ross put to him: ‘How do you feel about these allegations being made?’
Urlateanu: ‘Very scared and very much afraid of all of this.’
He was convicted of nine charges including the rape of four women and illegal sexual activity with another.
In her evidence, Bugonea admitted having ‘sex parties’ at her flat describing them as a ‘fun atmosphere’.
Quizzed about sexually assaulting any of the victims, Bugonea said: ‘I am a woman – why would I have a plan to rape her?’
She also denied women only visited due to their drug issues claiming she believed they were ‘friends’.
Bugoena said: ‘Even now, I cannot believe that they would put me in this position.’
She branded other evidence heard in the trial as ‘ridiculous’.
The crimes she was convicted included being part of the rape of one woman and illegal sexual activity with another.
