Suspended sentence for Peterborough man who took 15-year-old girl to hotel and refused to let her leave

Iounut Mustata, 22, was with a friend when he met two 15-year-old girls at Starbucks in the Ortongate Retail Park, on 17 March last year.

When the four of them left the coffee shop together Mustata bought the girls alcohol and drove them around the city looking for somewhere to buy food.

He then told the girls he had already booked a hotel and they could wait there while he found somewhere to purchase food.

When they arrived at the hotel Mustata took one of the girls to a hotel room and refused to let her leave. She pleaded with him to let her go home, but he was insistent she stayed. The victim estimated she asked to leave twenty times, with Mustata getting increasingly irate.

In desperation, the victim went to the bathroom to get away from him, but he followed. When she tried to leave the room, he held the door handle so she could not get out.

After a while they both left the bathroom and the victim managed to call another friend, but Mustata snatched the phone out of her hand, threatened the person on the other end and stated that the girl was not leaving.

The victim finally managed to escape by running to the hotel reception to get help.

Mustata, of Burton Street, Peterborough, was arrested and later denied charges of taking a child without lawful authority and purchasing alcohol for someone under 18.

He was found guilty of the charges following a trial at Cambridge Crown Court in September.

On Thursday (28 October) at Huntingdon Law Courts he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work, 25 days rehabilitation activity and given a nine-month curfew from 9pm to 6am.

DC Clemie Yaxley said: “Mustata’s behaviour that day was both disgraceful and incredibly worrying.

“He bought alcohol for the victim knowing she was underage and then ignored her desperate pleas to go home as he seemed determined to keep her at the hotel. Thankfully she managed to escape, but not before being terrified by his actions.”