DPD driver sexually assaulted five women in same Nottinghamshire village in two days

A DPD delivery driver carried out a series of sexual assaults on women he came into contact with in a Nottinghamshire village. Nottingham Crown Court heard how over a two-day period, Ionut Torodoc touched, kissed or grabbed five different victims in East Leake.

On one occasion he took a photograph of one woman and told her “I had to get your legs in”. The 37-year-old also got into the front passenger seat of another victim’s car, turned around to her nine-year-old son who was sitting in the back seat and told him “your mum is very beautiful”.

Jailing him for 17 months, Recorder Ciaran Rankin said: “This case paints a very disturbing and troubling picture. You displayed a bizarre attitude towards others you came into contact with when working as a delivery driver. It is an extremely worrying set of offences and in your pre-sentence report you don’t seem to recognise the seriousness of these offences.”

Thomas Welshman, prosecuting, said the first offence took place at around 7pm on April 30, this year in a Tesco Express in Marlborough Road, Leicester. He said the defendant walked over to a mother with her child who was using the self-service checkout and picked up the boy. The prosecutor said she demanded he put him down telling him he should not do that and he walked away.

Mr Welshman said all of the other offences happened in East Leake on either May 21 or 22. He said the first saw the defendant park his van in front of a woman’s car to deliver a parcel at 9.40am on May 21. The prosecutor said: “She had her nine-year-old son in the car but got out as she recognised the defendant and opened her house so she could take the parcel in. He told her she was a ‘beautiful girl’ and tried to kiss her but she turned away.

"She was shocked and returned to her car and he got in and sat in the front passenger seat and said ‘let’s go’ before turning to her son in the back seat and telling him ‘your mum is very beautiful’. He then got out of the car and said ‘you must order more parcels’.”

The prosecutor said around 20 minutes later he went to deliver another parcel at a different address in the village and when the female answered the door he put it down on the floor. Mr Welshman said: “She went to pick up the box and bent over and he put his hand on her thigh saying ‘nice tattoo’ before pushing his hand further up her thigh and started to grab her shorts. He told her ‘I need to get a photo’ and took a photo from above and when she saw it, it was not of the parcel but just her body. He said ‘I had to get your legs in’.”

The prosecutor said at 10.45am the same day the third victim was at her place of work in the village when Torodoc arrived with a delivery claiming to be unwell and was given a glass of water and something to eat. He said while there he kissed one of the female workers on the cheeks and then “grabbed her face and kissed her on the mouth”. Mr Welshman said: “She felt him trying to put his tongue in her mouth and clenched her teeth together to prevent this from happening.”

The prosecutor said at 2pm, also on May 21, the fourth victim was at East Leake Leisure Centre and was approached by Torodoc who had made a delivery. He said the defendant “grabbed her” and tried to pull her close to him and she could smell alcohol on his breath.

Mr Welshman said the fifth victim was a 17-year-old female who was walking to work at 9.30am on May 22, when the defendant pulled up alongside her and asked her for a light before grabbing her hand. He said: “She walked off and he followed her in the van wound down his window and said ‘where do you work, I will take you, get in’. She said ‘get away from me’ and when she got to work she suffered a panic attack and had to be sent home.”

Torodoc, of Stuart Street, Westcotes, Leicester, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual assault and also to common assault. He has three convictions for six offences including fraud and drink-driving.

He was assisted at this week’s hearing by a Romanian interpreter. Emma Coverley, mitigating, said her client has a wife and son back in his home country and at the time of the offences she had told him she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him.

She said: “He has been in custody for six months now and has not had a family visit. He was given indefinite leave to be in the UK in 2020 and was working and quite properly sending money home to his family in Romania.”

As well as the prison term, the judge placed the defendant on the sex offender register for 10 years.