Exeter stalker raped teenager in alleyway

A man who stalked lone women walking home late at night has been convicted of raping a teenager in an alleyway.

Gheorghe Bertlef, 32, of Pinhoe Road, Exeter had denied attacking the 18-year-old on 13 November as she walked home from a club.

The victim was “manhandled” into Hoopern Lane after telling Bertlef she did not want to kiss him.

Judge Robert Linford told Bertlef at Exeter Crown Court earlier he would face a “substantial sentence”.

The 32-year-old, who was employed as a Royal Mail sorting office worker at the time, had spent weeks walking around Exeter in the middle of the night looking for lone women, the court heard.

He approached a group of female Exeter University students just two hours before carrying out the rape last year, and his behaviour alarmed them so much that one took a picture of him on her phone, jurors were told.

The victim told the jury she was so frightened on the night, she froze and did what Bertlef demanded, but told him repeatedly that she wanted to be allowed home.

Bertlef, who went on to become an Amazon delivery driver, blocked the teenager from leaving during the 30-minute-attack, she told the court.

He told jurors he went out on the night looking for a girlfriend, and was carrying a condom because a woman he approached on an earlier occasion had refused to have sex without one.

He was arrested just over a week later when police spotted him stalking two more women who were walking on their own late at night.

Following a unanimous guilty verdict, Judge Linford told him: “Be under no illusion, you will be facing a very substantial sentence of imprisonment.”

Bertlef was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing at Exeter Crown Court on 23 October.