A Romanian grooming gang who groomed vulnerable women and forced them to take part in ‘sex games’ have been jailed.
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 pimp’ who behaved with a ‘predatory nature’, was jailed for 24 years for raping 10 women.
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.
Police Scotland’s investigation uncovered that the gang’s activities during an operation focusing on the trafficking of woman to Dundee from eastern Europe to work as prostitutes.
But officers also found that vulnerable women from the local area were also being groomed with gifts, crack cocaine and whisky.
After being plied with alcohol and drugs they were then forced to take part in degrading ‘sex games’.
One victim was forced into prostitution after Cumpanasoiu and Stan set up a profile of her on a website and drove her to meet men to have sex with.
She later said she was sold a ‘pipe dream’ of how she could make ‘lots of money’ from selling her body, but Cumpanasoiu became angry when did she did not earn enough.
A video was found on his phone recording the victim climbing a tree, with Cumpanasoiu threatening: ‘Because you do not make money, you stay all day in the tree.’
The case is the latest in the number of grooming gang trials still be prosecuted across the country.
Last week, five men from Romania and Albania were found guilty of serious sex offences including rape against six teenagers in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
Some of the victims were vulnerable and felt beholden to the older men – four of whom are from Romania and one from Albania – who bought them cigarettes and alcohol in exchange for sexual favours
Earlier this month, an Asian grooming gang operating in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, were jailed for a total of 174 years after two white schoolgirls were raped as they were used as ‘sex slaves’ from the age of 13.
Sentencing the gang, Judge Lord Scott stated that a number of the group ‘deflected and minimised’ their offending. They now face deportation back to Romania after serving their sentences.
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.
There were said to be so many young women ‘passing through’ that the gang struggled to remember who they all were.
He was also convicted of a charge under the Human Trafficking Act, by forcing a woman into prostitution, and two charges of brothel keeping.
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.
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 may be 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 of included being part of the rape of one woman and illegal sexual activity with another.
