A stealthy rapist stalked me like prey as I left Christmas – I thought I was going to die
As she stepped into a photo booth with her colleagues, Charlie Gilbert, 26, rummaged through the box of fancy dress clothes and donned a silly hat and sunglasses.
It was January 2023 and Charlie, then 25, was having a blast taking photos and drinking vodka and lemonade with her co-workers at a post-Christmas party.
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But just hours later, on her way home, Charlie was followed, dragged into a parking lot and raped by a man who had been watching her every move.
“The evening was great and everyone had fun,” says Charlie, who bravely waived her right to anonymity.
‘What I didn’t know was that a stranger, Alin-Vasile Iercosan, was lurking and watching my every move. It makes me sick that he was studying me from a distance while we were partying.”
After a few hours at the party, Charlie went outside for a cigarette and saw a man standing in front of the bar vaping.
‘He was small, with bright blue eyes and a brown mohawk. I didn’t know his name, but I knew I’d seen him at work before. I smiled politely and he smiled back,” she recalls.
Moments later, when Charlie walked back inside, the mysterious man was nowhere to be found.
At 3:30 a.m., after saying goodbye to her colleagues, she started walking to the center of the city to look for a taxi home.
Charlie says, ‘I tried to call my parents to ask for a ride, but they were asleep and didn’t answer.
“So I staggered alone in the dark, walking to the main road where I saw the taxi rank.
“I couldn’t wait to collapse in bed.”
But just as Charlie approached the taxi stand, she felt someone wrap his arms around her tightly.
“My heart felt like it was stopping,” she recalls.
“I was dragged off the road to a side street, next to a building structure.
“I started screaming, kicking and fighting with all my might. I tried desperately to hit him, but my arms were trapped.
“I kicked my legs in the air and couldn’t get away. I yelled at him to get off me and stop.
“The man threw me to the ground and I hit my head hard on the concrete. I saw stars and my vision became blurry.”
Charlie’s ordeal was far from over.
Freezing with fear
“He climbed on top of me, lifted my party dress and ripped down my pants,” she explains.
“For a moment I saw his face, I realized it was the man from the party. He worked for my company.
“I froze when he raped me. It took half an hour, but it felt like a lifetime.
‘I thought to myself that if I stayed still, he wouldn’t hurt me anymore. I didn’t know if I was going to be killed.”
Charlie squeezed her eyes shut, wishing it would end. Then Lercosan jumped off her and fled the scene.
Disoriented, shocked and confused, Charlie managed to get up, pull up her pants and run to the taxi rank.
When a taxi pulled up, she was hysterical, banging on its windows, begging for help and screaming that she had been raped.
How to get help
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Contact charities for help, including Women’s Aid’s live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarize yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without saying anything, but calling “55” instead.
- Make sure you always have some money with you, including change for a phone booth or bus ticket.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try going to a lower-risk part of the house, such as where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where knives or other weapons are likely to be present. Avoid rooms where you could become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you could be locked in a closet or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline .org.uk.
Women’s Aid offers a live chat service – Available on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
You can also call the free 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
The taxi driver was shocked and called the police. Just minutes later, police officers arrived and Charlie fell to the ground crying.
Charlie says, “They tried to calm me down and help me breathe. They put me in the back of their police car, but I sobbed because I still felt him inside me.
“They placed a brown bag under me so that the DNA could be preserved.
“The officers then sent a team to my work. As I was being taken home, they broke the news to my parents.
“They were devastated. But they were also relieved that I was still alive. We all were. We knew he could have killed me.”
Police discovered that the man – later named lercosan – was a steelworker for the nuclear power station where Charlie worked and that he lived in the factory’s accommodation.
‘He stalked me like his prey’
CCTV footage showed him looking at Charlie at the Christmas party before he struck.
Charlie says: ‘I felt sick realizing how he was stalking me like his own prey. I couldn’t believe it.
“I had DNA swabs and tests all weekend. But days later, a police sergeant told me that my attacker had fled to Romania.
“He had a family there. I was extremely upset and worried that they would never catch him again.
“Or that he would hurt more women.”
Evil on the run
But six days later the monster was arrested at Luton airport after flying back to Britain. The DNA on the swabs taken by the police matched his.
But remarkably, he still denied any wrongdoing.
“Even though all the evidence was there, he lied and said it wasn’t him in the videos,” Charlie explains.
‘While I was waiting for the court, I felt guilty and stupid for walking alone that night. I relived it constantly in my head.
“I couldn’t even stand to be around men’s aftershave because it smelled like Alin-Vasile. It was horrible.”
Justice served
In April 2023, Iercosan, 28, of Bath Road, Bridgwater, appeared at Taunton Crown Court where he admitted rape due to “overwhelming evidence against him”.
As Charlie prepared to meet him in court for sentencing, police informed her that the CCTV footage would be shown in court.
She says: “I first watched it at my parents’ home.
“I saw the violent, horrible way he dragged me away to rape me. I broke down.
“But in court I bravely stood before him and read my impact statement.”
Decision of the Court of Appeal
Although Lercosan was originally jailed for seven years, the Crown Prosecution Sentence challenged the sentence, claiming it was too lenient.
The Court of Appeal agreed and in July 2023 the term was increased to ten years and ten months.
Charlie says, “Now I can finally sleep at night knowing he’s paying for what he did.
“I have since returned to work, and they have been incredibly supportive.
“But what that man did changed the person I am forever.
“I was social and independent. And now I don’t go out alone unless I’m accompanied.
What the courts said:
With an appeal to increase his sentence, he went to three courts: Magistrates (for his first appearance), Crown (where he was initially convicted) and the Court of Appeal.
There it was decided that the original sentence he received was too lenient and therefore it was increased.
Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson QC said: “This was a brutal and calculated attack on a lonely woman who was on her way home.”
He went on to describe his actions as ‘despicable’ and added that Charlie had understandably suffered ‘trauma’ as a result.
Charlie was delighted and said, “He’s paying for what he did.”
“I watch over my shoulder, go to therapy and work on my PTSD. Day by day I am healing.”
Charlie wants to encourage other victims like her not to be afraid to bring their attackers to justice.
“Knowing that animal is behind bars has brought me some peace, but it will never undo what he did to me,” she says.
‘If this has happened to you too, please speak up. You have nothing to be ashamed of.’
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