LITHUANIAN RAPISTS WHO FILMED THEMSELVES ASSAULTING WOMAN FAIL TO CLEAR THEIR NAMES
Two Lithuanian men, Nerijus Radavicius and Justinas Gubinas, who filmed themselves committing sexual assault against a woman, have failed in their attempt to clear their names.The incident took place at a farmhouse after they met the victim in a nightclub.
Radavicius, aged 29, and Gubinas, aged 22, were convicted of totting up the collective rape and filming the assault on a mobile device after a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen last year.
Additionally, a third man, Ovidijus Kavaliauskas, aged 22, was found guilty of raping the woman while she was asleep.
The three offenders, all from Lithuania, each received a sentence of four and a half years in prison.
Gubinas and Radavicius appealed their convictions, with the appeal considered at Edinburgh's Criminal Court of Appeal before five judges, including Scotland's senior judicial figures.
They contended that the trial judge, Lord Armstrong, had misdirected the jury regarding the interpretation of the video evidence shown during the trial.
The judge had instructed the jury to interpret the footage and draw conclusions based on what it revealed, asserting that the footage showed the woman in an intoxicated state and at one point, she could be heard saying “no”.
After reviewing similar cases in Canada, the judges upheld Lord Armstrong’s directions, stating that the jury was entitled to evaluate the videos as they would eye-witness testimony.
They concluded that there was no miscarriage of justice, and the appeals were therefore refused.
