‘APPALLING’ GROOMING GANG LOCKED UP
‘RELENTLESS’ CAMPAIGN BEGAN AFTER SCHOOLGIRL RAPED IN PARK
THE rape of a schoolgirl at a south Manchester park was the start of a gang’s ‘relentless’ grooming campaign.
Just 12-years-old, the child was repeatedly attacked in Crowcroft Park in Levenshulme, a court heard.
The man responsible went on to target other youngsters. The victims were bombarded with messages on social media as men tried to persuade them to meet up for sex, Manchester Crown Court was told.
An investigation - Operation Enfield - was only triggered in December 2017 when a friend of the victim, who had also been targeted, confided in a care worker. Two of the victims were in care, one in a children’s home and the other with foster parents. The others lived at home.
Operation Enfield is still ongoing. Detectives believe there are other victims. Trees and bushes at the park have been cut back - and benches removed - to make it more open. Police hope it will stop gangs operating there.
Brothers Sebastian Baltatu, 18, and Ilie Daniel Baltatu, 22; and cousins Parizian Calin, 20, and Adrian Calin, 20, have now been locked up for more than 25 years. Judge Suzanne Goddard described their behaviour as ‘appalling’; said the men ‘knew what they were doing’ and that ‘sexual offending had become normalised’ in the group.
Other members of the grooming gang have fled abroad and are being hunted. Victim impact statements read in court told the emotional stories of the anxiety and shame victims have felt since the abuse. One of the girls said: “At the time, I had no idea why it happened. My anxiety was getting worse and I hated being left on my own.
“Now I can’t even go in my corner shop without being anxious or scared.”
Another said: “I feel sick when I think about what these people were doing.”
The court heard how the defendants were close friends. Members of the group, all originally from Romania, exploited the ‘vulnerable’ girls, who were all looking for friendships and ‘people to be close to.’
One victim - who was 12 at the time the abuse started - was raped by Sebastian Baltatu at Crowcroft Park before being raped a number of other times by Parizian Calin. Sebastian Baltatu and Parizian Calin are now fathers.
“Parizian Calin would persistently ask the victim for sex and would be pestering her on social media,” prosecutor Jonathan Savage told the court.
“On one occasion, after having sex with her on the park, he told her to wait where she was and then another man came in and asked her to perform oral sex on him. On another occasion, she was taken to a house by Parizian Calin. She refused to have sex with him.
“Moments later, a man she had never seen before who she thought was also Romanian came into the room and asked her for oral sex.”
Another girl, who was under the age of 13, was preyed on by Ilie Baltatu who is known as Daniel - before he incited her to engage in sexual activity. “This girl said she was in a relationship with Daniel,” the prosecutor said. “He had sex with her on three occasions,” he added. Adrian Calin incited a 15-year-old to engage in sexual activity when he picked her up in his car on one occasion, the court heard. “This victim became friends with Daniel on Facebook. She would receive messages from him regularly”, the prosecutor added. “Adrian Calin was keen to meet up with the girl and one on occasion he asked her to perform oral sex on him.”
Sebestian, Parizian and Adrian all denied the offences, but were found guilty after a trial but Daniel pleaded guilty from the outset.
In mitigation, Jaime Hamilton said his client Parizian Calin had one only previous conviction for theft and at his age, a prison sentence would be ‘difficult to serve.’ He also told the court how his client had a partner and a young daughter. John Richards argued that because Sebastian Baltatu was only 14 at the time his committed the offence, he was ultimately ‘groomed himself.’
“When he raped his victim, his codefendants had said to him ‘well done brother,’” Mr Richards said. Ilie Daniel Baltatu, of HMP Manchester, was sentenced to eight years for one count of grooming; three counts of sexual activity with a child under 16; child abduction; one count of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity; and one count of sexual assault of a child under 13.
Sebastian Baltatu, of Her Majesty’s Young Offender Institution Wetherby, was sent for three years to a young offender institution for one count of rape of a child under 13.
Adrian Calin, of Reynell Road, Levenshulme, was sentenced to a year in a young offender institution for one count of inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.
Parizian Calin, of Slade Lane, Levenshulme, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for five counts of rape of a child under 13; two counts of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence; one count of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity; and one count of sexual assault on a child under 13.
The men were ordered to sign the sex offender register.
Parizian and Ilie (Daniel) were made the subjects of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.