A Romanian immigrant who screamed “sex” at a Suffolk woman while attempting to rape her has been jailed for sexual assault following his extradition from Romania.
The woman was walking through a churchyard in Bury St Edmunds last May when Andu Nedelcu blocked her path, then forced her to the ground before grabbing her between the legs, the Express has reported.
The woman fought back, kicking her 20 year old attacker repeatedly, but he was able to drag her to some nearby bushes where he stood over her and yelled “sex!” He then exposed himself as she pleaded to be allowed to leave, before forcing her to partake in a sex act.
After the attack he fled the scene, while a passer-by who had heard screams alerted the police.
Detective Chief Inspector Eamonn Bridger said: “From the start this crime was treated extremely seriously by police.
“Stranger attacks of this nature are rare in Suffolk and it was extremely concerning that the woman had been dragged off the path and subjected to this level of sexual assault.”
A police appeal brought forward three female witnesses who reported being approached by a man matching Nedelcu’s description earlier in the year, and DNA evidence taken from the victim’s arms and hands were matched to those found at Nedelcu’s home.
By then, Nedelcu had fled back to his native Romania, where he was arrested in late January. By early February he had been returned to the UK to face justice, pleading guilty to attempted rape, sexual assault, causing a female to engage in sexual activity and assault.
Officer Bridger said: “Within days Nedelcu had been identified as a suspect and detectives worked to gather evidence and to bring him back to the UK to face justice.
“The case against Nedelcu was overwhelming, leading to his earlier guilty pleas to some offences in March and, eventually, to the guilty plea on Tuesday and we are pleased that she will not have to relive her ordeal in court.”
Nedelcu was sentenced to six years and eight months in a British jail, and will have to sign the sex offenders’ register for life upon his release.
Recent analysis of prison figures showed that Romanian convicts alone cost British taxpayers more than £22 million a year to house, despite European Union rules allowing member states to send prisoners to their home country to carry out jail sentences.
The option was little used by Britain – just 19 EU convicts were repatriated in the year to May 2015 – but the opportunity to do so has now been lost following a ruling last week by judges at the European Court of Justice who decreed that deporting Romanian and Hungarian prisoners violated their fundamental human rights as prison conditions in those countries are so poor.
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