Two migrant men have been sentenced for the “traumatic” gang rape of a lone woman in Farnham, England.
The victim was attacked by Constantin Ionescu (10/06/1983), of Station Hill, and Nicolae Dragoi (02/08/1977), of Crondall Lane, after returning from a night out with family members in London and becoming separated from her husband, according to a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) bulletin.
“This was a truly appalling attack that targeted an extremely vulnerable woman, who had the misfortune to find herself alone and came across the defendants in the street,” remarked Gareth Morgan, a rape specialist District Crown Prosecutor with CPS South East.
“This was a predatory attack on a woman who was actively targeted by these two men. They pursued her throughout Farnham town centre and once isolated, subjected her to a traumatic assault,” added Detective Inspector Adam Tatton for Surrey Police, describing the “impact on the victim and her family” as “far-reaching”.
“The strength and courage demonstrated by the victim throughout the course of this investigation and subsequent trial has led to the conviction of both defendants who, had they not been caught, would have continued to pose a significant risk to others,” he said.
The CPS bulletin said that Ionescu and Dragoi were each convicted of three charges of rape and sentenced to 14 years apiece — but how long they will actually spend in prison is unclear.
Firstly, if given standard determinate sentences, they will both be eligible for automatic release on licence after just seven years.
Secondly, it is not clear whether the pair were given 14 years for the three charges, or it the figure of 14 years is arrived at by adding up three separate sentences for each charge.
It is common in the English criminal justice system for judges to decide that criminals given multiple sentences should serve them concurrently — i.e. all at the same time — rendering all but the longest essentially meaningless and the reported, cumulative term length misleading at best.
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