A Romanian who raped a doctor in a city centre street has been jailed for nine years and branded ‘a danger to women’ by a judge.
Mihai Nicolae Patran attacked the then 27-year-old stranger in Glasgow’s Mitchell Street in November 2023.
The traumatised victim eventually fled from Patran whilst partially clothed to the safety of a taxi.
Patran was later arrested – and went on to perform a sex act on himself while sitting in the dock during his first court appearance.
The 34-year-old Romanian was yesterday sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow, having been found guilty following a trial last month.
Judge Norman McFadyen told Patran: ‘You are a dangerous man and a danger to women.
‘It is hoped you will be deported or removed from the country at the earliest opportunity.’
However, the judge said he had to consider the possibility that Patran could be released in Scotland where he would continue to present a risk to the public.
In those circumstances, he said that Patran would need to be supervised for three years after any release.
The doctor had not long moved to the city prior to the attack. She told how she had been at a party and had decided to join others in going into the city centre.
She got delayed in leaving and ended up getting a taxi on her own. Realising it was late and most bars would be shut, she headed for a Taco Bell restaurant to get some food, walking onto Mitchell Street.
She spoke of her arm being touched and ‘just like a strange man being there’.
A man emerged from an ‘indent’ in the alleyway and that she ‘froze’. She told prosecutor Greg Farrell: ‘I was just so scared. I think I kind of mentally froze.’
The woman said she ended up on the ground with the man ‘kind of towering’ over her.
She told jurors how she eventually got away, saying: ‘I remember I got my phone and quickly ordered an Uber taxi – thankfully it came quite quickly.’ Patran was arrested following an police investigation. He claimed that the doctor had consented to sex.
Patran appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court days after the attack. He was handcuffed to a female custody officer who was sickened as she saw the predator groping himself.
The sheriff was later alerted and police became involved.
It also emerged Patran had flashed at a woman on a train between Perth and Stirling on October 22, 2023.
Patran was found guilty of all three charges and put on the sex offenders list indefinitely.
