A predatory Warrington rapist has been warned he may receive a life sentence after being convicted of raping a young woman who became separated from her friends on a night out in the town.
When Mariyan Grudev was later tracked down by police and asked about the allegation he just said ‘prove it.’
And after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court the case against him was indeed proved. He is now awaiting sentence for that offence and also for a later attempted rape also in Warrington, which he admitted.
Grudev, aged 38, of Thelwall Lane, Latchford, has been warned by Judge Neil Flewitt, KC that inquiries will be made into his dangerousness and he may face a life sentence behind bars.
The court heard while the Bulgarian does not have any other convictions in the UK he has been convicted in his homeland of rape and sexual assault.
During the trial Robert Wyn Jones, prosecuting, told how the rape victim went out with friends and work colleagues on December 21, 2019 for a meal and drinks.
They went to various bars and clubs but by 2 am she had become separated from the final two friends she had been with.
Her recollections after that were vague but she remembered being near the junction of Wilderspool Causeway and Priory Street with a Bulgarian man, said Mr Wyn Jones.
He kept asking her to come back to his home and she felt vacant and unable to respond. The next thing she recalled was a sharp pain in her vagina.
Meanwhile her mum was tracking where she was using the Find My Friends App on her phone. Seeing she was by Priory Street, which was off her track home, and not answering her phone she and her husband set off looking for her.
On Wilderspool Causeway they saw her with a man who appeared to be pulling her along. They stopped and she got into their car and they noticed she seemed confused.
The victim said she could not remember what had happened and her mum found a twig in her hair which she later gave to the police. She was examined by a forensic medical examiner the next day and Grudev’s DNA was found on a tissue she had used.
Mr Wyn Jones said that police checked CCTV footage from bars and streets in Warrington and he was seen following the victim as she walked towards Wilderspool Causeway.
He was arrested and interviewed in November last year and when asked if he knew the victim or had sex with her he replied no comment. When later re-interviewed and the forensic evidence put to him he said, ‘prove it.’
Grudev did not give evidence during his trial but his case was that she had consented to sexual activity.
The court heard that before his arrest he had struck again and grabbed a 19-year-old girl as she was walking along Winwick Road, Warrington shortly before 3.15 am on July 29 last year.
He attempted to drag her into bushes near Majestic Wines close to the junction with Orford Lane. She escaped unharmed from the attack after seeking help from a passing taxi driver but was “extremely shaken by her ordeal.”
Grudev, formerly of Salisbury Street, Fairfield and Howley, Warrington, was identified from CCTV footage.
He has been remanded in custody to await sentence on September 20.
