Portuguese Sex Offender Image: Mauro De Oliveira flew to Portugal after being charged with rape and assault by penetration
23 February 2022
A man has been jailed after he was found guilty of raping a woman before fleeing to Portugal.
Leicestershire Police said Mauro De Oliveira met his victim and her friends at a club in Leicester in October 2016.
He went back to her accommodation in the city and during the night he went into her bedroom and raped her, the force said.
De Oliveira, 30, was sentenced to seven years and two months in prison at Leicester Crown Court on Monday.
Leicestershire Police said they charged the Portuguese national, who had been living in Leicester, with rape and assault by penetration in April 2017.
The following month he failed to appear at the city’s magistrates’ court.
The force said it was established he had left the country and flown to Portugal.
Detectives obtained a European Arrest Warrant and in April 2020 permission was granted for De Oliveira to be flown back to the UK.
There was a delay due to the pandemic but eventually he returned in June 2021 and was remanded into custody.
‘Stressful time’
De Oliveira denied both the offences but was found guilty after a trial.
He pleaded guilty to a third offence of failing to surrender to custody.
Det Sgt Jamie Petchell said: “De Oliveira tried everything in his powers to evade capture.
“Understandably, given the amount of time that elapsed from the offences being committed to the trial, this was a very stressful time for the victim.
“I am delighted that we were able to get justice for her despite the delays and obstacles we faced.”
Leicester rapist who fled to Portugal jailed – BBC News
In Portuguese, ‘de Oliveira’ means ‘of the Olive Tree’ and/or ‘from the Olive Tree’ It is also a Sephardic surname, used prior to the start of the Portuguese Inquisition as a way for Jews to avoid prosecution and under torture to become new Catholics. The surname is also recorded in many spelling forms including Oliva, Olivares, Olives, Oliveras, Olivera, Oliveres, and the locational D’Olivera and De Olivera, and is most strongly associated with Spain and the Iberian Peninsula.