Jailed for S19 years, Romanian who raped schoolgirl just 19 days af ter he arrived in UK
A ROMANIAN thug who forced a girl of 14 into bushes and raped her was jailed for nine years yesterday.
Samuel Ciornei had been in the UK for only 19 days when he attacked his terrified victim.
The High Court in Glasgow heard he watched the girl as she cycled to a shop in Barrhead, Renfrewshire to buy sweets.
While she was inside, he deflated her tyre which meant she could not cycle away. He then followed her as she pushed her bike and offered help.
But within a minute he had put a piece of broken glass to her throat and dragged her into bushes.
Ciornei, 20, then subjected the girl to a horrific seven-minute sexual attack on August 7 last year.
Judge Kenneth Maciver told him: ‘This was a disgusting and disgraceful sexual assault on an entirely innocent and unsuspecting 14-yearold girl who was out cycling on a quiet summer’s evening.
‘This appalling attack also has a sinister edge to it. I am clear on the available evidence this was no chance encounter. It was planned and premeditated.
‘It can’t be a coincidence that when this girl came out of the shop she had a flat tyre. I am clear you deflated the tyre. When she stopped to check her tyre, within 40 seconds you were beside her and offered to pump up her tyre. After a further 30 seconds, you produced from your pocket a sliver of broken glass.’
Judge Maciver said Ciornei should be compulsorily returned to Romania at the end of his sentence.
The court heard the girl’s ordeal only ended when he demanded money and she managed to gesture to the bag she had on her back. When he grabbed it, she managed to break free and run for help.
The victim has suffered enduring emotional trauma.
After trial Ciornei was unanimously found guilty of rape.
In evidence, the girl said she cycled to the shop to buy sweets and chained her bike outside. She saw Ciornei sitting nearby.
When she returned to her bike, she noticed it had a flat tyre. She told prosecutor Iain McSporran, QC, that Ciornei, who was wearing a ‘really distinctive hat’, gestured that she needed a hand pump.
The girl said she did not think he spoke English. He took the dust cap off 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. It was brown and quite jagged. 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, she replied: ‘Because I was scared.’
She described being raped and ‘moaning or whimpering’ in a bid to have Ciornei understand she did not want anything to happen.
CCTV footage showed the attacker ‘directing or pushing’ his victim into the bushes before disappearing after her. Seven minutes later, they emerged and she was seen breaking free from him and fleeing.
Ciornei, who gave evidence via an interpreter, claimed he followed her pushing her bike ‘intending to steal it’ but it had a flat tyre.
He said: ‘I kissed her mouth.’ But he denied raping her.
Defence counsel Geoff Forbes said his client, a first offender, maintained he did not rape the girl. He added that Ciornei intends to return to Romania on completion of his sentence.
Ciornei, who worked as a shepherd in Romania, arrived in Scotland on July 19, 2016, and stayed with family members in Barrhead. He has been put on the sex offenders’ register.
‘Disgusting and disgraceful assault’