EAST Renfrewshire’s MP has called on the Home Office to speed up the deportation of Barrhead rapist Samuel Ciornei.

Paul Masterton is concerned that Romanian Ciornei, who was convicted of a sex attack on a 14-year-old girl outside a town centre supermarket, is still in the UK.

The Tory politician said he has received personal assurances from Prime Minister Theresa May and Home Secretary Amber Rudd that Ciornei will be sent home to Romania to serve the rest of his sentence.

Mr Masterton told the Barrhead News: “Deportation action is an often difficult and time consuming process to be achieved through the courts.

“Securing the removal of Samuel Ciornei from Scotland would be a positive step, given the horrific crime he committed within our community.

“Locals should not be paying through their taxes for the bed and board of a convicted rapist who must no longer be allowed to stay in this country.

“I am thankful that the Home Secretary is progressing deportation action and I thank her and the Prime Minister for their support of the community in response to this heartbreaking crime.”

Ciornei entered the UK on July 19, 2016, and raped the schoolgirl in a car park behind the Iceland store in Barrhead’s Main Street less than three weeks later.

He was convicted after trial at the High Court in Glasgow in October 2017 and was sentenced to nine years behind bars.

The court heard that Ciornei watched the girl as she cycled to an Asda store to buy sweets and, while she was inside, deflated her tyre so she couldn’t cycle away. Judge Kenneth Maciver called the attack “disgusting.”

Ciornei has been serving his time in a UK jail but, after writing to the Home Secretary about the timescale of the prisoner’s deportation, Mr Masterton is now seeking assurances that the case will be dealt with swiftly.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.

“Anyone subject to a deportation order is banned from re-entering the UK. More than 6,300 foreign national offenders were removed from the UK last year.

“We do not routinely comment on individual cases.”