Thug is guilty of ‘degrading’ rape of girl, 14
Victim threatened with broken glass
A THUG threatened a terrified 14-year-old girl with broken glass, forced her into bushes and raped her in a ‘disgusting and degrading attack’.
Samuel Ciornei followed his victim to the car park behind an Iceland supermarket in Barrhead, Renfrewshire.
She thought he was offering to help with the flat tyre on her bicycle, but instead the 20year-old threatened her with a piece of glass and forced her into the bushes.
The teenager was so scared she did what she was told, before being subjected to a seven-minute rape and sexual assault.
The quick-thinking schoolgirl gestured that she had money in her backpack and to let her out of the shrubs to get it but was able to break free and run home.
After a trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Romanian national Ciornei was yesterday unanimously found guilty of the rape on August 7, 2016.
Judge Kenneth Maciver told him: ‘This was a disgusting and degrading attack on an innocent young girl. She was subjected to a violent attack which will live with her forever.’
The girl told the court she cycled to Asda to buy sweets and chained her bike outside, where she saw Ciornei sitting nearby.
When she returned to her bike she noticed it had a flat tyre and walked it to a car park behind an Iceland shop to inspect it. She told prosecutor Iain McSporran, QC, that the man she’d seen at Asda had been walking across the road from her and appeared behind her about 30 seconds after she stopped. The teenager said he ‘gestured for a bike pump’.
She said she didn’t think he spoke English and described being ‘a bit nervous’.
He placed her bike on the ground and took the dust cap from the tyre and put it in his pocket.
She said: ‘When he put the dust cap in his pocket he pulled out a medium-sized piece of glass.
‘He then put the glass up to my throat, he grabbed my hair and then he gestured for me to go to the bushes.’
Asked why she went in, the witness said: ‘Because I was scared.’
She described being raped and ‘moaning or whimpering’ in a bid to have him understand she didn’t want anything to happen.
The witness claimed Ciornei sexually assaulted her and ‘gestured for money’ using his hands.
She said she motioned back that she had money in her bag and it would be easier if they were out of the bushes.
Jurors heard Ciornei ‘forced’ her bag off her back and she broke free. The teenager described being in ‘quite a state’, unable to breathe and ‘hyperventilating’.
CCTV footage captured Ciornei ‘directing or pushing’ the girl into the bushes before disappearing after her.
Seven minutes later they emerged and she was seen breaking free from him and fleeing.
Ciornei claimed he followed her pushing her bike ‘intending to steal it’ but it had a flat tyre. He also claimed the girl went into the bushes and he tried to follow her but couldn’t fit properly.
Defence advocate Geoffrey Forbes will give his plea in mitigation next month when his client returns to be sentenced.
Ciornei was put on the sex offenders’ register.
Police Scotland temporary Detective Chief Inspector Gillian Patrick said: ‘Samuel Ciornei is a dangerous individual and we welcome the result from court.’
‘Attack will live with her forever’