THREE Slovakian men who drugged and repeatedly raped a 12-year-old girl over a three-day period have been jailed for a total of 53 years.
Dover port worker Kevin Horvath, 26, his cousin Ernest Gunar, 27, and burly Ivan Turtak, 38, swapped the girl among themselves in a sustained “campaign of rape.”
FacebookIvan Turtak, 38, admitted to taking a picture of the naked schoolgirl standing in a bath tub and was found guilty or raping a child under 13[/caption]
Kevin Horvath, 25, was convicted in June of sexual assault of a child under 13, after previously admitting three counts of rape and assault by penetration
Ernest Gunar, 27, was convicted of two charges of rape of a child under 13, after he previously pleaded guilty to one charge of rape of a child under 13
The monsters plied the innocent youngster with crystal meth amphetamine and cannabis during her ordeal, which left her wanting to die.
Today at Canterbury crown court Gunar was jailed for 19 years while Horvath and Turtak were each sentenced to 17 years.
All three of them will serve a minimum two-thirds of their tariffs and were given three-year extended license periods.
The court heard how assessments of the men showed they would all continue to pose a threat to children and they would be subject to sexual offenders’ orders.
Two of the men – Horvath and Turtak – have both signed paperwork for deportation.
Before the men were jailed, an impact statement from the girl was read to the court in which she spelled out the devastating effect the ordeal has had on her.
The girl – who can’t be named for legal reasons – said: “I keep having nightmares about what they did to me…about seeing them again.
“They seem so real and I don’t want to go back to sleep.”
She added: “I don’t feel the same girl anymore.I just want to be her again – I hope I will be her again.”
During their nine-week trial, Horvath and Gunar callously tried to blame the victim for “driving the sexual activity” while Turtak claimed the girl asked him to photo her naked.
Horvath and Gunar also laughed as harrowing details were given in evidence about their offending.
Prosecutor Hannah Llewellyn-Waters told the court today: “Ultimately they sought to lay much of the blame for their actions as grown men on a 12-year-old child they all raped.”
She added that the defendants’ contempt for the girl was “enduring and palpable”.
The vulnerable girl – a “complete stranger” to the gang – was lured by Horvath and Turtak into their Skoda in an Asda supermarket car park in Dover, Kent, on 11 August last year.
She had earlier walked out of her home following a row with her grandfather, had no money on her and was wearing a summer top and leggings.
The men offered her a cigarette and a chance to charge her mobile phone and CCTV showed her then begging to be released from the car.
But instead they locked the car doors and drove her to Turtak’s flat in the town.
She was given crystal meth and forced to commit a sex act on Turtak before he took a “trophy” photo of her naked in a shower.
Afterwards Horvath drove her to his cousin Gunar’s squalid caravan in Folkestone where she was raped by them both.
Prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said: “These defendants were all compliant in drugging, degrading and systematically exploiting the victim for their own sexual gratification.”
Jurors heard how the girl was taken out to a swimming pool and a shopping centre during her three-day nightmare – and warned she would be killed if she tried to escape.
Ms Llewellyn-Waters said although the girl’s ordeal was compressed into three days, the manner of it “amounts to a campaign of rape and sexual offending.”
The girl eventually managed to break free on August 13 by climbing out of a car window when the men fell asleep.
The girl was initially reported missing to police by her parents on the day she vanished and missing posters were put up in town.
She initially told police she had got lost walking to Folkestone – but broke down the next day and told her father about her rape ordeal.
A major operation involving 75 cops was then launched by the Kent Police Child and Adult Protection Investigation Team to find the rape gang.
Meanwhile, specialist officers began gently coaxing details from the victim about her harrowing ordeal.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Matthew Smith said the “Eureka moment” came within hours when CCTV was retrieved from the Asda car park showing the girl being lured into the car by the two suspects.
The Skoda car was found and the girl’s mobile phone was found inside the vehicle.
Turtak and car owner Horvath were both arrested and emergency forensic tests were carried out and both men were charged.
Gunar was identified as a suspect through phone evidence and a nationwide hunt launched to find him as he moved across the country.
DCI Smith said: “We were in a race against time to find him and he was successfully detained by police at Glasgow Airport.”
Gunar was captured minutes before he was due to board a plane for Dublin.
Kent officers travelled to Glasgow and brought Gunar back south as urgent forensic work continued which led to him being charged.
The girl’s mother today wept in court as she read an impact statement about the trauma her daughter has suffered since the rape ordeal.
She said her out-going child had become a recluse who was afraid to leave home and no longer attended school.
Her mum said the girl refused to leave her side, adding: “She has panic attacks…she cries a lot and doesn’t sleep.”
The weeping mum said her daughter doesn’t eat and went on: “She isn’t the same child as she was.”
She added: “I want closure for her and justice and hope she doesn’t have this hanging over her and has a normal life.”
As the trio were caged yesterday, DCI Smith said: “It is a shocking crime. It is one of the most harrowing cases of child sexual abuse I have ever come across.
“Nobody, let alone a 12-year-old girl, should have had to go through what she did at the hands of those three men.”
The detective praised the child for coming forward, saying: “She showed extraordinary courage and bravery reporting this.”
He said the child’s ordeal “is likely to have a significant impact on her for some time” adding: “It will be a long road to recovery for the victim.
“But I hope the convictions will provide some justice for her.”
Turtak was convicted of rape of a child under 13. He had already pleaded guilty to taking indecent photos of a child.
Horvath, pleaded guilty to three charges of rape of a child under 13, one charge of assault by penetration of a child under 13, and was found guilty of sexual assault of a child.
Gunar, who previously pleaded guilty to one charge of rape of a child under 13, was convicted of a further two charges of rape of a child.
Jailing them, Judge Sarah Counsell noted the defendants had all recently separated from their partners before the rape offences.
She added: “You are all dangerous. You each pose a significant risk of harm to the public.”
The defendants are of Roma origins and come from the Slovak city of Kosice.
Appalled locals disowned the rape gang as Slovaks, with one Kosice woman Agata Dunkova posting on Facebook: “They deserve to suffer a hundred times more than what they caused the girl.”
Another woman, Denise Kroscen, added: “They are not humans but monsters. They will need to confess to God.”
And Slovak social media user Marian Komar wrote: “I hope they will not be returned to Slovakia. Let the UK keep them.”
CPSThe schoolgirl was kept trapped inside this caravan for three days before she managed to escape[/caption]
CPSThe young girl was subjected to horrific abuse[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
