THREE men are expected to arrive back home in Australia today, Sunday January 31, after pleading guilty to gang raping a 17-year-old backpacker in a bar in Croatia but securing their freedom with a $30,000 deal with her family.

The three friends had been trapped in Croatia since July last year when police seized their Australian passports and charged them with assaulting the Norwegian backpacker by the toilets in a nightclub in the Adriatic port city Split.

The case was to be back before the courts on Monday the 1st of February but prosecutors and the men’s lawyers cut a deal to get them off on a plea and conditional jail sentence.

Under the deal, ratified by the County Courts, each youth, one aged 21-years-old and his two 23-year-old mates, pleaded guilty to rape and received a sentence of one year jail, to be immediately suspended to be of good behaviour for five years in exchange for giving the girl’s family 20,000 euros (AUD$30,595) or about $10,200 each.

The good behaviour bond is extended and enforceable for all over Europe but is technically not enforceable in Australia if they were to commit other offences. It is understood they left yesterday when the decision was made public in Croatia.

The three risked 15 years in jail each had a deal not been cut with the state attorney’s and public prosecutors offices.

Their lawyer Jadran Franceshci confirmed a settlement had been made but declined to comment further.

The court has heard the three men were drinking in the bar in the Bacvice area of Split last summer on July 16 about 1.30am when one of them took a 17-year-old Norwegian girl by “force” towards the men’s toilet before his two friends joined them.

They began to assault her before she fought them off.

The court alleged the men had plotted the girl’s rape earlier in the evening although it was not clear whether they had just met her or knew her previously but they had been drinking together.

The girl escaped “in a very last moment” and reported the incident to police who arrested the trio a short time later and charged them with rape and having “endangered the girl’s sexual freedom”. Forensic evidence on her clothes linked her having been sexually assaulted by the three men. Two had admitted having consensual sex with her and the third reportedly denied any liaison although semen traces suggested otherwise.

They had been on bail and free to travel about the country but not leave Croatia. It is understood they had been receiving Australian consular assistance whilst in the country.

Sources close to the case told News Corp Australia if the matter had gone to trial, they may well have been found not guilty.

“If it had gone to court the outcome may have been different but the case may have dragged on for years with them forced to stay here with no passports. Now they can restart their lives.”

The source said alcohol had played a large part in the evening and they made “wrong choices”.

“They are young and she younger but mistakes were made … they can all restart their lives,” they said.

Such out of court settlements are common.

“Deals like this became common in Croatian criminal law in the last few years. Deals between the accused person and the State Attorney’s office are not obligatory to the court but in most cases the court accepts it to avoid long processes and to save money if all the participants of the case were happy with the deal,” explained Mladen Ostro, a law expert and lawyer from Split.

The court has declined to release the men’s identities or which states or territories in Australia they are from.