Cristian Tataru 41

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A married Romanian man who paid £20 to have sex with a 15-year-old girl in a Southampton park has been jailed and faces likely deportation.

Cristian Tataru, 41, of Brintons Road, committed the offence at Hoglands Park in 2022 after paying the girl’s boyfriend £20, Southampton Crown Court heard.

He later left the UK and was arrested in Dover on his return in 2025.

Prosecutor Giles Bedloe said:

“In a prepared statement, he admitted having sex with the victim in this case. He said he thought she was 18 and thereafter gave a ‘no comment’ interview.”

The girl had told a relative she had been raped three times by three different men. Tataru pleaded guilty to paying for the sexual services of a child but denied a separate rape allegation, which will lie on file.

Defence barrister Andrew Houston said Tataru first came to the UK in 2016 to support his family in Romania. “He has a wife who has three children,” he told the court. “He knows he has let his wife and stepchildren down. He is sorry for what he has done. He has always accepted there was sexual activity.”

Houston added that Tataru felt aggrieved he was the only one prosecuted, as the other men’s whereabouts were unknown.

Passing sentence, Judge Gary Lucie told him: “You paid £20 to have sex with [the victim]. She was 15 and you were 38 – more than twice her age.

“You were acting with others including her partner at the time, who was abusing her. This was all about commercial exploitation.”

Tataru was jailed for three years and four months. He will serve half in prison before release on licence, and was given a five-year restraining order and placed on the sex offenders register for life. He is expected to be deported once his sentence is complete.