Immigrant in UK just 3 weeks raped girl, 14, by holding broken glass to her throat behind supermarket

A violent Romanian immigrant raped a 14-year-old schoolgirl behind a supermarket whilst threatening her with broken glass, just three weeks after arriving in the UK.

Samuel Ciornei was found guilty of raping a child near a car park behind an Iceland supermarket in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, on 7 August last year.

A trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard how the 20-year-old threatened the girl with broken glass, forced her into bushes and raped her in a seven-minute assault.

Jurors heard how the unsuspecting child thought Ciornei was offering to help with the flat tyre on her bicycle before he threatened her and ushered her into nearby bushes.

The BBC reported that the court was told how Ciornei then "gestured for money" using his hands and when he grabbed her bag she escaped.

Judge Kenneth Maciver told him according to The Mirror: "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 victim told the court that she had cycled to a nearby Asda to buy sweets before the attack began.

"When he put the dust cap in his pocket he pulled out a medium sized piece of glass," she testified.

"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."

Ciornei claimed he followed her intending to steal her bike and admitted that he "kissed her mouth" but claims that while he tried to follow her into the bushes, he could not get through properly.

Ciornei, who has now been placed on the Sex Offenders' register, had only arrived in Scotland on 19 July where he stayed with family in Barrhead.

His plea in mitigation next month when his client returns to be sentenced, reported the Daily Record.