Rapist who attacked woman on a night out after cheating on her girlfriend gets seven years in prison

A violent rapist posed as a Good Samaritan when he offered to look after a young woman while her boyfriend went to get his car before attacking her.

Catalin-Petrisor Luca, 33, waited until the man was out of sight before picking up the girl, who was drunk after drinking in Reading town center for her first night out in three months.

Luca took his stumbling victim to an abandoned building where he raped her in the early hours of October 30 last year.

He then calmly carried her back and when the motorist returned, unaware of the sexual assault that had taken place, Luca surreptitiously told him, “She shouldn’t be drinking that much.”

Luca’s modus operandi was revealed at Reading Crown Court, where a judge jailed him for nearly seven years for admitting a single charge of rape.

In pronouncing the verdict, Judge Kirsty Real said, “There is no doubt that you targeted her because you perceived that she was effectively defenseless and unable to resist.

“You took advantage of the whole situation.”

The court heard he had targeted a young woman who had been out with friends and was left alone and drunk on the streets between Popworld nightclub and Thames Tower in Reading town centre.

Luca, a Romanian national living in Reading, originally denied the rape, but changed his plea after learning CCTV footage showed him taking the young woman to the secluded spot where he raped her.

Simon Foster, prosecutor, told the court: ‘On October 29, the prosecutor took a bus into the city center to enjoy her first night out in three months.

Later that night, she left the Popworld nightclub with a man she had met there and spent the evening with. She was clearly drunk and several persons came forward to help her.

Her companion offered to give her a ride home, but he had to collect his car from a nearby parking lot before he could take her home.

The girl was drunk with her boyfriend outside the Popworld nightclub in Reading, Berkshire, when several people came forward to help her – including Luca

She stumbled and had to stop and sit on a low wall. At that point, the defendant approached the two and offered to watch over the complainant while her companion went to get his car.

After he left, Luca put an arm around her and started touching her crotch. At that moment, shortly after one o’clock in the morning, Luca picked up the complainant and took her to a secluded place in an abandoned building.’

The court heard that once the brutal attack was completed, Luca carried the young woman back to the sidewalk where her boyfriend had originally left her, sat her down and waited with her as if nothing had happened.

When her companion finally returned with his car, completely unaware of what had just happened, Luca even spoke to him and said of the young woman he had just raped, “She really shouldn’t be drinking that much.”

The victim said in her statement to police: “Whenever I look back on this night, I feel disgusted, victimized and upset.

“I hadn’t been out for three months at the time and I just wanted to have a good time. Now I think: I never want to go out again.’

Luca had no previous convictions.

Alan Walker, Luca’s legal counsel, said his client had found custody “extremely difficult” and had considered suicide – but the judge brushed aside these comments, saying the only mitigating circumstance she would take into account was Luca’s belated admission of guilt.

Judge Real, speaking to the defendant a few minutes before pronouncing her sentence, said: ‘I hope you have listened carefully to the complainant’s statement and the effect you have had on her.

“Since this happened, she can’t go out much. She doesn’t trust men. Her anxiety is severe and she suffers from flashbacks. Yet you seem to lack understanding of what you have done.’

Luca was sentenced to six years and eleven months in prison. If he had not pleaded guilty, he would have been sentenced to eight years and five months in prison, the judge said.