Victory after 7 years of humiliation: the mother who beat the system to see her daughter's abuser behind bars: “Now I walk with my head held high”
The ordeal of a family who believed in the stories of their 12-year-old daughter, fighting in court for 7 years against the driver of the school minibus, has ended. “I walk on the road with my head held high,” says the mother who, all these years, had only one thought: that justice be done.
The man ended up behind bars PHOTO: Pixabay
A man who had made a habit of addressing sexually suggestive remarks to 12-13-year-old girls, the words being accompanied by guilty gestures, is behind bars after an approach that lasted over 7 years. During this period, the only family that started on the path of the courts went through painful, humiliating moments. “Now I walk the road with my head held high. I thank God for giving me the strength to fight!” says today Laura Barbu, the mother of the child who started the investigation.
The aggressor, the man who should have taken care of the children
The case of the school minibus driver who is currently serving his sentence of 3 years and 6 months in prison in a penitentiary in Dolj has been extensively reported over the years. However, the incarceration of the man from Dobrun, Olt, came after seven years, during which the case had a winding course.
It all started in April 2019, when the mother of a 13-year-old girl (the girl was 12 years old at the time of the first act, telling her parents everything a few months later) informed the police that her daughter was assaulted by Mihai Nicolae, the driver of the minibus with which the students go to school in the locality. The mother would find out that this was not the first time it had happened and that her daughter was not the only one being assaulted. The man, who was supposed to take care of the children, at least during the transportation from home to school and from school to home, was actually satisfying himself by touching the girls including in their private areas and saying inappropriate words to them. The news had already spread among the children about the man's “grabs”, and they were talking about him using the nickname “Pedo”.
Initially, Laura Barbu managed to convince other parents to take a stand, thus collecting the statements of several girls during the research phase. Some of the testimonies are disturbing. They were read by the investigative bodies, but the reports, not being supported by evidence, were not considered sufficient arguments to initially accuse the man.
“Nicolae Mihai came out from behind the counter, approached her and without saying anything, touched her with his hands on both breasts and in the intimate area, put his hand through the shorts she was wearing and touched her in the intimate area. The injured person reacted only verbally, because he created a state of fear, telling him to leave her alone, and he replied
There were several such classifications, first at the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Caracal Court, later also at the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Olt Court. All the investigations of a prosecutor from the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Olt Court finally led to the final conviction pronounced on May 5, 2026 by the Craiova Court of Appeal.
The girl had the courage to tell her parents, and they notified the police PHOTO: pers. archive.
The road between the first solutions of not starting the criminal investigation and finally sentencing the man to 3 years and 6 months in prison (with execution) was strewn with nerves, tears, psychological tests, therapy sessions, humiliations, side-eyed looks thrown by some citizens who had come to believe that the child's family was actually the one harassing the man and not the driver abused the innocence of some children.
“Pedo”, the school bus driver who groped female students, escapes again. What are the prosecutor's arguments?
Along the way, the statements of the girls who initially had the courage to write about what they went through were retracted. Today the girls, who in the meantime have reached the age of majority, are happy, says Laura Barbu, about the sentence and say that at that time the mouth of the world mattered more to their parents or grandparents, the statements being withdrawn out of shame.
“The girl couldn't believe it. She made me show her the message from the lawyer”
The girl who confessed everything to her mother, from here starting the complaint to the police, the investigation, the trial and finally the conviction in the first instance followed by the final solution, is today a first-year student at the Faculty of Law. During the seven years she testified countless times, she underwent several psychological evaluations, she needed psychological therapy sessions, she battled with alopecia (for which she is still undergoing certain treatments today). There was a long period when she did not leave the yard of the house unless accompanied, fearing that the man against whom she had filed a complaint might retaliate by harming her.
In the year following the start of the research, the girl's school results suffered, so that from a student with a general average above 9.00, she recorded a result far below her expectations in the National Assessment.
However, her parents constantly supported her, her mother repeating to her that “the truth will come out, God forbid.”
After the sentencing, it was the lawyer who broke the news to the family.
“I told him and he didn't want to grow up. And he made me send the lawyer a message to write me what the solution is, so that she can see the message. He couldn't believe it. He kept repeating – Mom, I don't believe anymore!”, revealed Laura Barbu, the girl's mother, for “Adevărul”.
“The hardest and hardest thing was that I took my daughter and took her everywhere to get the truth out and for the whole world to see that this man did so much harm to so many children. We wanted to get the truth out and stop him from doing to other children what he did to my child. There were a lot of girls who said in those statements. And all the parents… I don't know what these parents are saying now.”continued the mother of the assaulted girl.
The family from Dobrun does not have an enviable financial situation. The expenses occasioned by all the necessary procedures have in many moments squeezed their last resources. “It was very difficult for us to go through prosecutors, judges, lawyers for seven years. It was hard, hard, hard, hard, very hard. Do you believe that we didn't do anything in the house, nothing in the yard, we just continued with this approach? I mean, all the money was for the lawyer, roads, what was needed. We never thought of asking for money, the husband estimated the expenses at 20,000 lei and he was asked for evidence. so many years of evidence to present. We were told to bring witnesses. Well, who knows better than me and her father where I took my child”said the mother. The convicted defendant now has to pay 10,000 lei in material damages.
The CSM notifies the Judicial Inspection in the case of “Pedo”, the school minibus driver who groped female students. The prosecutor closed the case citing the lack of witnesses
Even harder to carry was, both for the girl and the family, the burden of the community's perception. “The world saw us with different eyes, the world laughed at us. We were no longer like people, we were the black sheep, because we told the truth and they didn't believe us. But now we walk on the road with our heads held high. Now they congratulate us, they tell us that we did well”the woman completed.
If the first court decided that the victim should receive compensation of 50,000 lei, the Craiova Court of Appeal increased the amount of moral damages to 100,000 lei. Laura Barbu says that she was never interested in the money, because it cannot compensate for what the child has experienced all these years.
“My child had hair treatments. And today she does hair treatment. (…) It was hard, it was a hard time. I went to psychologists, where needed. After the first solutions, we thought that the ground was running away from under our feet, no one believed us, including Mrs. Mihaela Măceșanu, the prosecutor from Caracal (ed. – who gave a solution of not starting the criminal investigation, although there were also the statements of other girls). I would like to see this sentence. (…) And the prosecutors who used to go everywhere and pick us up at three o'clock. We took our girl everywhere to get the truth out. That's why the girl didn't believe anymore, nor did the people in the village anymore, they didn't know what to believe anymore, after so many things that happened”. the victim's mother also said.
