A grooming gang who sexually exploited 10 vulnerable women in Dundee will have a further wait to learn their fate as life sentences are considered.
Mircea Cumpanasoiu, 37, Christian Urlateanu, 41, Alexandra Bugonea, 34, Remus Stan, 34, and Cataline Dobre, 44, were back in the dock at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday.
Ringleader Cumpanasoiu – known as Mario – was guilty of 15 charges, Urlateanu nine, his then-partner Bugonea five, Stan eight and Dobre – known as Luigi – also five following a six-week trial.
The Romanian-born gang – based at flats in Dundee in 2021 and 2022 – left a number of those they preyed upon hooked on crack cocaine, leading them to be blackmailed into sex.
Lord Scott had deferred sentencing on the five and further adjourned as he called for full risk assessments to be carried out on Cumpanasoiu and Urlateanu.
This could eventually see the imposition of Orders for Lifelong Restriction (OLR).
The judge reminded Cumpanasoiu he had been found guilty of 10 rape charges involving seven of the women and Urlateanu was guilty of multiple rapes.
Lord Scott said getting a risk assessment does not “tie my hands” in how he deals with both.
He added: “It remains possible extended sentences will be imposed.
“If that is the case, significant custodial sentences will be necessary – well into double figures.
“All options are kept open until I see the reports.”
The judge earlier told the hearing he had read “powerful and eloquent” victim impact statements from two of the women.
He hoped more would be available from other survivors for the next calling of the case.
A number of jurors in the trial had attended court in Glasgow, hoping to see the gang sentenced.
The five will next appear in Edinburgh on May 13.
The trial heard harrowing testimony about how the gang preyed on the women – most already troubled by personal issues.
Some had even considered members of the group to be their friends.
Victims would be plied with whisky and crack cocaine as well as being made to take part in sleazy “sex games”.
There were said to be that many young women “passing through” the gang struggled to remember who they all were.
Cumpanasoiu was called a “winking, smirking pimp”. He was described as behaving towards women in a “predatory nature”.
Among the charges both he and Stan were convicted of was one under the Human Trafficking Act by forcing a woman into prostitution.
The court heard briefly on Tuesday from defence lawyers for the gang.
This included Urlateanu’s KC Gillian Ross stating he still “strongly denies any wrongdoing”.
Mark Stewart KC, defending Bugonea, said he had suffered serious personal issues in Romania and that she had also been “exploited” while in Scotland.
Lord Scott remarked: “Her role as a woman in the flat played its part in facilitating or encouraging or luring women.
“She was perhaps exploited in that but her role was an important one.”
Prosecutors have also moved for Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Orders to be imposed on Cumpanasoiu and Stan.
These mean a criminal is effectively banned from a range of activity as well as other possible restrictions.
All five remain in custody meantime.
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