PILING into a photobooth with her colleagues, Charlie Gilbert, 26, rummaged through the fancy-dress box and pulled on a silly hat and sunglasses.
It was January 2023 and Charlie, then 25, was having a blast as she took snaps and sipped vodka and lemonades with her work colleagues at a post Christmas do.
But just hours later as she made her way home, Charlie was followed, dragged into a car park, and raped by a man who had been watching her every move.
“The night was great with everyone having fun,” says Charlie, who has 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 sickens me that as I partied he studied me from a distance.”
After a few hours at the party, Charlie went outside for a cigarette and spotted a man standing in front of the bar, vaping.
“He was short, with bright blue eyes and a brown mohawk. I didn’t know his name, but I knew I’d seen him around 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 seen.
At 3.30am, after saying bye to her work mates, she began walking to the centre of town to find a taxi home.
Charlie says: “I tried to call my parents to ask for a lift but they were asleep and didn’t answer.
“So I staggered alone in the dark, walking towards 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 their arms tightly around her.
“My heart felt like it stopped,” she recalls.
“I was dragged off the road into a side street, next to a building construction.
“With all my might, I began screaming, kicking and fighting. I tried desperately to hit him, but my arms were trapped.
“I was kicking my legs in the air and couldn’t get away. I screamed at him to get off me, and to stop.
“The man threw me to the ground, and I hit my head on the concrete, hard. I saw stars and my vision blurred.”
Charlie’s ordeal was far from over.
“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 realised it was the man from the party. He worked for my company.
“I froze as he raped me. It went on for half an hour but it felt like a lifetime.
“I thought to myself if I stayed still, he wouldn’t hurt me anymore. I didn’t know if I’d be killed.”
Charlie squeezed her eyes shut, wishing it would end. Afterwards, lercosan leapt off her, and fled the scene.
Disorientated, shocked and confused, Charlie managed to stand up, pull her pants up and run to the taxi rank.
As a taxi pulled in, she was hysterical, banging on his windows begging for help and shouting she’d been raped.
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 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 provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
The taxi driver was horrified and rang the police. Just minutes later, police officers arrived and Charlie collapsed to the floor crying.
Charlie says: “They were trying to calm me down and help me breathe. They put me into the back of their police car, but I was sobbing that I could still feel him inside me.
“They placed a brown bag underneath me so the DNA could be saved.
“The officers then sent a team to my work. Whilst I was taken home they broke the news to my parents.
“They were devastated. But they were also relieved I was alive. We all were. We knew he could’ve killed me.”
The police discovered the man – named later as lercosan – was a steel worker for the nuclear power plant where Charlie worked and he lived at the accommodation at the plant.
CCTV footage captured him watching Charlie at the Christmas party, before he pounced.
Charlie says: “I felt sick realising how he’d stalked me like his own prey, I couldn’t believe it.
“All weekend I had DNA swabs and tests. But days later, a police sergeant informed me my attacker had fled to Romania.
“He had a family there. I was extremely upset, worrying they’d never catch him again.
“Or that he’d go on to hurt even more women.”
But six days later, the monster was arrested at Luton airport after he flew back to the UK. The DNA on swabs taken by police matched with his.
Yet remarkably, he still denied any wrongdoing.
“Although all the evidence was there, he lied saying it wasn’t him in the videos explains Charlie.
“As I waited for court, I felt guilty and stupid for walking alone that night. I re-lived it in my head constantly.
“I couldn’t even bear to be near men’s aftershave as it smelt like Alin-Vasile. It was horrendous.”
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 face him in court for the sentencing, police informed her that the CCTV footage would be shown in court.
She says: “I watched it at home with my parents first.
“I watched the violent, awful way he dragged me away to rape me. I broke down.
“But in court I bravely stood in front of him and read out my impact statement.”
Although lercosan was originally jailed for seven years, the Crown Prosecution Sentence challenged the sentence, claiming it was unduly lenient.
The Court of Appeal agreed, and in July 2023, the term was raised to ten years, ten months.
Charlie says: “Now, I can finally sleep at night knowing he’s paying for what he did.
“I’ve since returned to work, and they’ve been incredibly supportive.
“But what that man did has changed the person I am forever.
“I was sociable and independent. And now I don’t go out alone unless I’m chaperoned.
As there was an appeal to increase his sentence he went to three courts: magistrates (for his first appearance), crown (where he was initially convicted and sentenced) and the Court of Appeal.
There it was decided that the original sentence he received was unduly lenient so it was increased.
The Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson KC said: “This was a brutal and calculated attack on a lone woman making her way home.”
He went onto describe his actions as “despicable,” adding Charlie had understandably suffered “trauma” as a consequence of them.
Charlie was delighted, saying “he’s paying for what he did.”
“I watch over my shoulder and I’m going to therapy and working through my PTSD. Day by day, I’m healing.”
Charlie wants to encourage other victims like her to not feel afraid about bringing their attackers to justice.
“Knowing that beast is behind bars has brought me some closure but it will never undo what he did to me,” she says.
“If you’ve been through this too, please speak up. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
