Men guilty of raping girls they met in park

Codrin Dura and Leonard Paun were found guilty of multiple offences including rape

This article contains details some people may find distressing.

Five men have been found guilty of being part of a grooming gang that raped and sexually assaulted girls they met in a park.

One of the six victims was a 14-year-old girl who became addicted to cocaine given to her by the men and was then passed around for sex, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The four Romanian men and one Albanian man were found guilty of multiple offences committed in Gateshead between 2015 and 2019, with prosecutors saying the group targeted vulnerable girls in Saltwell Park.

A sixth man, Ionut Mihai, was found not guilty of all offences. Those convicted were remanded into custody to be sentenced at a later date.

The accused met some of their victims in Gateshead's Saltwell Park

Codrin Dura, 27, was found guilty of two counts of rape, three counts of sexual activity with a child, attempted rape, blackmail and sexual assault all relating to one girl, called Girl A.

Dura was also found guilty of two counts of raping a second girl, Girl B, but cleared of four other counts of raping her.

He was also convicted of arranging the commission of a child sex offence and supplying Class A drugs.

Leanoard Paun, 23, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child and one count of rape in relation to Girl B, but cleared of four further rape offences for the same victim.

He was also found guilty of two counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, distributing an indecent image of a child and supplying Class A drugs.

Klaudio Aleksiu, Stefan Ciuraru, and Bogdan Gugiuman were also found guilty of numerous offences

Bogdan Gugiuman, 44, was found guilty of three counts of rape relating to Girl B and cleared of one, and convicted of supplying Class A drugs.

Klaudio Aleksiu, 28, was found guilty of one count of raping Girl B but cleared of another and supplying Class A drugs.

Stefan Ciuraru, 22, was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault relating to girls B, C and D, sexual activity with a child, Girl E, and inciting a child, Girl F, to engage in sexual activity.

Ionut Mihai, 28, was found not guilty of three counts of rape in relation to Girl B.

Jurors reached their verdicts after more than three days of deliberation.

Judge Tim Gittins thanked them for their efforts and told the convicted men a prison sentence was "likely".

'Girls routinely abused'

Speaking after the verdicts were returned, Det Ch Ins Graeme Barr of Northumbria Police said the men's crimes were "horrific" and praised the "bravery, composure and dignity of the victims in this case".

He said: "Every child has the right to grow up safe from harm, but for these girls their childhood was snatched from them in the cruellest of ways."

Charlotte Dennison, Head of the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit at CPS North East, said the men "played a part in grooming vulnerable girls into sexual activity" and plying them with drugs and alcohol.

"For some of the victims, what began as a relationship with one person descended into them being passed between group members, where they were routinely abused while heavily intoxicated," she said.