A man who carried out two sex attacks in a Dundee nightclub then spent seven months on the run in his native Romania, has been jailed.
Marius Ropota, 34, previously of Mossgeil Crescent, was jailed for 11 months at Dundee Sheriff Court.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years after admitting sexually assaulting two teenage girls.
Ropota committed the sex assaults by touching the teenagers in an inappropriate manner at Liquid, South Ward Road (pictured right), in January last year.
He originally denied the offences and was due to stand trial on December 8 last year.
He failed to appear at the city’s sheriff court and a warrant was granted for his arrest — but police discovered he had left the country the previous night.
Ropota was only traced in Romania on July 8 this year and extradited back to Scotland.
Ropota, a prisoner of Perth, then pleaded guilty to the attacks and has been remanded since. He has been served with deportation paperwork by the Home Office, which will now be enforced.
Fiscal depute Vicki Bell told the court the teenagers were friends and neither of them knew Ropota.
The fiscal said: “The complainers left the dancefloor to go to the smoking area. As they walked up a set of stairs the first complainer heard someone running up the stairs behind her and, as she turned to see who it was, the accused reached and touched her. He also attempted to pull at her clothing.”
Ropota then turned and sexually assaulted the teenager’s friend in the same manner. The incident was captured on CCTV.
Solicitor George Donnelly, defending, said: “Mr Ropota has great difficulty in identifying himself, not physically but through his actions as the man on the CCTV as he has never behaved like that before.
“He was genuinely shocked about his behaviour and is remorseful and offers his apology to the complainers.”
Sheriff Lorna Drummond said that due to the nature of the offences a custodial sentence was only appropriate.
She said: “It costs a lot of money and resources to get someone back to Scotland from Romania. I consider you to be a flight risk as you have already left to go to Romania once before.”
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