Pictured: Marian Cumpanasoiu, Alexandra Bugonea, Remus Stan (top row), Cataline Dobre and Cristian Urlateanu (bottom row)
27 October 2025
A Romanian grooming gang led by a “winking, smirking pimp” have been jailed for raping and sexually abusing 10 women in flats across Dundee.
The four men and one woman plied their victims – aged between 16 and 30 – with drugs at various properties between 2021 and 2022.
Ringleader Marian Cumpanasoiu, 38, along with Remus Stan, 35, Cristian Urlateanu, 41, Catalin Dobre, 45, and Alexandra Bugonea, 35, were previously convicted of 30 charges at the High Court in Glasgow.
Cumpanasoiu was sentenced to 24 years, Urlateanu to 20 years, Stan to 12 years, Dobre to 10 years and Bugonea to eight years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg8791y4xxo
A Romanian grooming gang who groomed vulnerable women and forced them to take part in ‘sex games’ have been jailed.
Ringleader Marian Cumpanasoiu, 38, and four associates drugged their victims, aged between 16 and 30, at flats across Dundee between 2021 and 2022.
Cumpanasoiu, described as a ‘winking, smirking pimp’ who behaved with a ‘predatory nature’, was jailed for 24 years for raping 10 women.
Christian Urlateanu, 41, Alexandra Bugonea, 35, Remus Stan, 35, and Cataline Dobre, 45, were also locked up following a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Bugonea, the only female member of the gang, admitted having ‘sex parties’ at her flat describing them as a ‘fun atmosphere’. She was convicted of being part of the rape of one woman and illegal sexual activity with another.
Police Scotland’s investigation uncovered the gang’s activities during an operation focusing on sex trafficking eastern European women to work as prostitutes in Dundee.
But officers also found that vulnerable women from the local area were also being groomed with gifts, crack cocaine and whisky.
After being plied with alcohol and drugs they were then forced to take part in degrading ‘sex games’.
One victim was forced into prostitution after Cumpanasoiu and Stan set up a profile of her on a website and drove her to meet men to have sex with.
She later said she was sold a ‘pipe dream’ of how she could make ‘lots of money’ from selling her body, but Cumpanasoiu became angry when did she did not earn enough.
Marian Cumpanasoiu, described as a ‘winking, smirking pimp’ who behaved with a ‘predatory nature’, was jailed for 24 years
A video was found on his phone recording the victim climbing a tree, with Cumpanasoiu threatening: ‘Because you do not make money, you stay all day in the tree.’
Sentencing the gang, Judge Lord Scott stated that a number of the group ‘deflected and minimised’ their offending. They now face deportation back to Romania after serving their sentences.
He said: ‘Over a 15-month period each of you participated in the serious sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable and mostly young women in the Dundee area.
‘There were various reasons for their vulnerability including difficult family circumstances and use of drugs.
‘By offering them an unending supply of mostly free crack cocaine you exacerbated their vulnerabilities and proceeded to exploit them for your own sexual gratification and in some cases for financial gain.’
Jurors previously heard harrowing testimony about how the gang preyed on their vulnerable victims, most of whom were already troubled by personal issues.
After being plied with alcohol and drugs they were then forced to take part in degrading ‘sex games’.
There were said to be so many young women ‘passing through’ that the gang struggled to remember who they all were.
He was also convicted of a charge under the Human Trafficking Act, by forcing a woman into prostitution, and two charges of brothel keeping.
Meanwhile, Stan was found guilty of four rapes and Dobre found guilty of two rapes. Alexandra Bugonea was convicted of one rape and illegal sexual activity with another.
Judge Scott continued: ‘No doubt you assumed rightly for some time that the drug related lifestyles of the women meant that you were not reported or detected.
‘To an extent, that attitude and delusions of impunity persisted in the background reports before me with continuing efforts to use the vulnerability of the women to try to attack their credibility. These attitudes do you no good at this stage and aggravate matters.
‘It may be you thought that no one cared for your victims meaning you could do whatever you wanted to them without consequence. If so, events have proved you wrong.
‘Each of the women found the strength to give evidence despite their difficulties and have taken steps to move on from that stage in their lives.
‘I commend them for having taken back control of their lives to the extent that they were able to do that and testify about the abuse they suffered at your hands.
‘It’s clear the jury understandably and overwhelmingly accepted the vast majority of their evidence and rejected your unconvincing denials and claims of consent.
‘In contrast to your evidence, the women were careful, credible and convincing. Your victims are now survivors albeit they are permanently damaged by what you did to them.
‘There is no suitable alternative to custody due to gravity of the crimes which involve a catalogue of serious sexual exploitative and abusive conduct upon vulnerable women.’
There was also grim testimony of how Urlateanu, Stan and Dobre gang-raped one woman. She was preyed upon having gone to a ‘party’ at a flat in Dundee.
This victim recalled being given a substance which made her feel ‘rotten’ before being attacked by the trio.
His KC Gillian Ross put to him: ‘How do you feel about these allegations being made?’
Urlateanu: ‘Very scared and very much afraid of all of this.’
He was convicted of nine charges including the rape of four women and illegal sexual activity with another.
In her evidence, Bugonea, who was a prostitute in Dundee, admitted having ‘sex parties’ at her flat describing them as a ‘fun atmosphere’.
Quizzed about sexually assaulting any of the victims, Bugonea said: ‘I am a woman – why would I have a plan to rape her?’
She also denied women only visited due to their drug issues claiming she believed they were ‘friends’.
Bugoena said: ‘Even now, I cannot believe that they would put me in this position.’ She branded other evidence heard in the trial as ‘ridiculous’.
She was convicted of the rape of one woman and illegal sexual activity with another.