Romanian women's national bobsleigh coach pimped out athletes to VIPs - while whistleblower was suspended

Women's bobsleigh and skeleton coach Paul Neagu was arrested on October 9, accused of human trafficking and pimping the athletes to businessmen and VIPs.

Now, a former squad member, Ioana Gheorghe, has told how she reported Neagu to sports watchdogs after he attempted to groom her in 2020. Instead of calling the police, they banned Ioana from competing for two years and suspended Neagu for just eight weeks.

Ioana told local media of the terrifying moment Neagu burst into her hotel room while she was in bed in just her bra and pants and ordered her to let him take photos.

She said: "I was in my underwear in bed and he walked in on me and wanted to hit on me with his phone. I didn’t know where it was going or what his intentions were or what he wanted to do, but for me it was enough. I said this is time to put an end to this."

The creepy move followed countless earlier close calls with the powerful coach, said Ioana.

She explained: "There were some close approaches that I thought were disturbing. Grabbing my arms too tightly, strange looks, but I turned them all down."

But when she reported Neagu to the Romanian Athletics Federation, she said she was amazed when she found out she was the one in trouble.

Ioana said: "The federation suspended me for two years, and the coach was suspended for only one month. Why did I have been suspended for two years?"

The decision, she says, forced her to quit as a member of the national bobsleigh squad for good.

She explained: "I had to leave the lot, that is, that’s how I wanted it because I couldn’t continue under such stress and aggression."

She says other girls knew all about the coach's sleazy grooming methods but were too scared of losing their places in the squad to speak out. Ioana's dossier was eventually sent to Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism, or DIICOT, last year and is now part of the case against Neagu.

Prosecutors say Neagu spent six years exploiting girls in the squad, selling them to powerful VIPs and businessmen and telling his victims it would raise their profile.

They accuse the coach of selling the girls to wealthy punters in Germany and Monaco and pocketing the cash while claiming it was to support Romanian sport.

They told a preliminary hearing: "Businessmen and public figures with influence are involved. The suspect identified, in a skilled manner, the vulnerability of each athlete, adapting his manipulation methods to their individual needs to sexually exploit them to satisfy his own or his associates' sexual desires and to gain a form of respect or appreciation from them."

Neagu, reports local media, is also facing charges of witness tampering and is said to have pressured one victim to alter her statement.

Story: NewsX