GANG OF 4 FOUND GUILTY OF SEX ATTACKS ON TEEN

Judge hails bravery of then 17-year-old victim of car ordeal

- DECLAN BRENNAN

A JURY has convicted four men of a range of sexual assaults of a teenage girl in a car six years ago.

In the early hours of December 27, 2016, the then 17-year-old girl got into a vehicle with five men.

She had become separated from her friends at the end of a night out in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

She asked for a lift to a place in the county but instead the car drove along back roads towards nearby Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath.

During the journey the girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a number of men who groped and molested her.

The car was parked up at a remote spot on the Harbour Road, Kilbeggan, and two of the defendants and another man then raped her one after another.

The car was then driven back into Tullamore and parked at the Whitehall car park The woman was crying and asked to leave the car but two of the men stopped her getting out of the car.

One of these men raped her for a second time and another orally raped her.

After just under nine hours of deliberations the jury found the four defendants guilty of a number of charges. The driver, Marcos Vinicius De Silva Umbelino, 22, of Riverview, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, was convicted of sexually assaulting the woman by groping and molesting her on the journey. He was also convicted of raping her.