Schoolgirl tells of bushes ‘rape’ ordeal
Man threatened me with broken glass, she claims
A scared schoolgirl was threatened with broken glass, forced into bushes and raped, a court heard yesterday.
The teenager, then only 14, described a man appearing behind her at a car park at the back of an Iceland supermarket.
She said he didn’t speak English and pulled a jagged piece of glass from his pocket, held it at her throat then “gestured” for her to go into nearby bushes.
She told the High Court in Glasgow of being “scared” and crawling into the bushes, with him going in behind her before raping and sexually assaulting her.
The court heard he gestured for money and she ran off when he forced her backpack off of her after they got out of the bushes.
The 15-year-old was giving evidence at the trial of Samuel Ciornei, who is accused of making the girl crawl into bushes and raping her at the back of Iceland in Barrhead on August 7 last year.
The charge includes claims the 20 yearold took hold of the girl’s bike and grabbed her by the hair before holding a piece of glass at her.
Ciornei faces a separate assault and robbery charge for allegedly “forcibly” taking the girl’s bag and stealing it.
In earlier agreed evidence, jurors heard that after the alleged rape the girl identified Ciornei as her attacker after reporting the incident to the police.
The schoolgirl told the court she had cycled to a nearby Asda to buy sweets and chained her bike outside, where she saw Ciornei sitting nearby at the bike rack.
She said that when she returned to her bike she noticed it had a flat tyre and walked it to a car park behind Iceland to look at it.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC asked how long she thought she was there before she was joined by anyone. She replied: “About 30 seconds.” She said the man she had seen from Asda had been walking across the road from her and appeared behind her.
Asked if she noticed anything about him, she said he had a “really distinctive” hat.
Mr McSporran asked: “Did he engage in any conversation?”. The witness replied: “No, just gestures.”
The teenager said he “gestured for a bike pump”.
She said he didn’t think he spoke English and she described being “a bit nervous”.
The court heard he put her bike on the ground and took the dust cap from the tyre and put it in his pocket.
She said: “When he put the dust cap in his pocket he pulled out a medium-sized piece of glass.
“It was brown and quite jagged. He then put the glass up to my throat, he grabbed my hair and then he gestured for me to go to the bushes.”
Jurors heard he pointed to an opening in the bushes and she crawled in.
Asked why she went in, the witness said: “Because I was scared.”
She described being raped and “moaning or whimpering” in a bid to have him understand she didn’t want anything to happen.
The witness claimed Ciornei sexually assaulted her and “gestured for money” using his hands.
She said she motioned back that she had money in her bag and it would be easier if they were out of the bushes.
“I gestured to tell him he has to get off me so I could take my bag off,” she explained.
Jurors heard that Ciornei “forced” her bag off her back and she then ran home.
The teenager described being in “quite a state”, unable to breathe and “hyperventilating”. The police were called. Defence advocate Geoffrey Forbes put it to the girl that Ciornei had kissed her and they had struggled, but that was all that happened. She said that was incorrect. Ciornei denies the charges and the trial before judge Kenneth Maciver QC continues.