A grooming gang in Gateshead who raped and sexually abused a number of teenage girls have been jailed for between 18 months and 14 years.
Northumbria Police launched an inquiry into offending against six girls who were aged 13-16 between 2014 and 2019.
The girls were sometimes plied with alcohol or cocaine before they were sexually abused.
The victims were targeted by teenagers a few years older than them, the investigation found, with the girls sometimes thinking they were in a relationship, before older men exploited them.
Some of the offending centred around Saltwell Park where the men would meet to play football.
The inquiry led to the convictions of four Romanians and an Albanian following an eight-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court in October.
They were:
Bogdan Gugiuman, 44, of Westbourne Avenue, Gateshead, who was found guilty of three counts of rape and supplying a Class A drug. He was jailed for 14 years and was in his mid-30s and married when he committed the offences.
Codrin Dura, 27, of Ripon Street, Gateshead, who was found guilty of four counts of rape, four counts of sexual activity with a child, blackmail, attempted rape, serious sexual assault, supplying a Class A drug and arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence. He was jailed for 13 years.
Albanian Klaudio Aleksiu, 28, of Church Terrace, Windsor, who was found guilty of rape. He was jailed for six years.
Leonard Paun, 23, of Windsor Avenue, Gateshead, who was found guilty of five counts of rape, two counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence, sexual activity with a child, sexual assault, supplying a Class A drug and distributing photos of a child. He was jailed for five years and one month.
Stefan Ciuraru, 22, of Brinkburn Avenue, Gateshead, who was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault, sexual activity with a child and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He was jailed for 18 months, given his youth at the time of the offending.
Judge Tim Gittins said the victim impact statement from one of the victims, who was sexually exploited after becoming addicted to cocaine, was “nothing less than haunting”.
Addressing the defendants, he said: “You all to a greater or lesser extent have deeply traumatised her and psychologically scarred her.”
The judge paid tribute to all the victims’ courage, their resilience in seeing it through the court system and their dignity.
He added: “It is not for me to say but I hope they come to see themselves, as I do, as survivors and not just as victims.”
Earlier, one victim read a statement to the judge in which she said Dura had controlled her.
“It was like he had a spell on me,” she said.
“It was like I was held hostage and had to play a role.”
She added: “I feel like he has taken so much away from me, I always try to bury it.”
Dura raped her by luring her to his home on the pretext he would delete an intimate photo he had been threatening to show to her parents.
A second victim read her statement to the court in which she said: “I was naive and impressionable, and it made it easy for me to be preyed upon.”
The victim who became addicted to cocaine said in her statement: “This whole experience has massively changed my view of men for life.
“I am petrified of all men.
“There are so many things that trigger my pain, I don’t know if I will ever lead a normal life.”
Josh Normanton, for Dura, said he came to the UK as a boy with his family who were economic migrants from Romania and he was unable to speak English when he arrived.
“He was someone who was more immature than his age,” his barrister said.
“He comes from a family who are hard-working, polite and extremely concerned for him.”
Glenn Gatland, for Paun, said his client came to the UK with just his mother and his father died after joining them later.
He has since become a caring father, Mr Gatland said.
“He is someone quite capable of rehabilitation,” he said.
Sue Hirst, for Gugiuman, who is Paun’s cousin, said he was of previous good character and is married with three teenage boys.
Shada Mellor, for Aleksiu, said the delay in bringing the case to trial had impacted his mental health.
He has since moved to the south of England and has a partner and a child, she said.
Ciuraru was said to have had limited schooling and low intellect, and he hoped to return to Romania.
The judge also praised the police investigation, noting there had been previous criticism “of the response in the past by authorities to cases such as this and their victims”.
He commended Northumbria Police’s care for the victims in this case.
