Emil Burlacu – Hillingdon, London

A Romanian migrant who raped an 11-year-old girl and held a hand over a face to stop her screaming has been jailed.

Emil Burlacu, 35, carried out the “traumatising” attacks on the youngster after arriving into the UK in 2008.

The fiend repeatedly threatened the girl and warned her not to complain to the authorities.

She later told police: “He would come back and make sure my mouth would stay shut. He just kept saying stuff like that and threatening me.

“He was making me shut up. His hand was over my mouth and over my face. I was screaming and fighting him quite a lot. I was terrified of what he could do.

“He said that if someone was to find out, he would do something to me.”

Burlacu, who is originally from Romania, has now been jailed for 24 years after he was found guilty of two counts of rape.

He was also convicted of one count of assaulting a girl under 13 by penetration, one count of sexual assault, and one count of causing a female child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Wearing a grey prison tracksuit, Burlacu, from Hillingdon, West London, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court assisted by a Romanian interpreter.

Corinne Bramwell, prosecuting, said the young girl has been left “traumatised” for the rest of her life.

Burlacu was also made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.