Brute who raped girl, 14, in bushes found guilty
she had money in her backpack, saying she needed to get out of the shrubs to get it.
She then took this opportunity 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, which took place on August 7 last year in Barrhead.
Judge Kenneth Maciver told him: “This was a disgusting and degrading attack on an innocent young girl who was simply out to enjoy a cycle on a quiet summer evening.
“She was entitled to feel safe, but she was not safe.
“She was unfortunate enough to encounter you and she was subjected to a violent attack, which will live with her forever.
“Words cannot express the revulsion which society feels about such attacks of sexual violence.”
The schoolgirl, who is now 15, 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 Iceland to inspect it.
She told prosecutor Iain McSporran QC that the man from Asda had been walking across the road from her and then appeared behind her about 30 seconds after she stopped.
She described him as wearing a “really distinctive hat”.
Mr McSporran asked: “Did he engage in any conversation?”. The witness replied: “No, just gestures.”
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 put 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.
“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.”
Jurors heard he pointed to an opening in the bushes and she crawled in.
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 to get it if they were out of the bushes.
Jurors heard when Ciornei “forced” her bag off her back, she broke free and ran.
The teenager described being in “quite a state”, unable to breathe and “hyperventilating” and the police were called to report her ordeal.
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.
In evidence, Ciornei claimed he followed her pushing her bike “intending to steal it”, but it had a flat tyre.
Ciornei said: “I grabbed her jacket at the collar and pulled her towards me and she was struggling. “I kissed her mouth.” He claimed that when he took hold of her she “struggled very hard to get away”.
He also claimed the girl went into the bushes and he tried to follow her, but couldn’t fit properly.
Mr McSporran told the court the teenager said, in a victim impact statement, that she is anxious and fearful and wonders how it will affect future relationships.
He said: “Her appearance as a witness suggests she may be a remarkable young woman and I hope she will continue to do as well as she seems to be doing.”
Labourer Ciornei, who left school to become a shepherd, only arrived in Scotland on July 19 and stayed with family in Barrhead.
Judge Maciver added that he was concerned that after such a short time in the country, Ciornei was “drunk, aggressive and following a young girl, for whatever purpose”.
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.