Man found guilty of raping girl (14) at Co Down beach

A MAN has been convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl at a north Down beauty spot.

A jury of seven men and five women returned a unanimous guilty verdict over the July 2021 incident at Helen’s Bay following a three-week trial at Belfast Crown Court.

The man was unanimously cleared of raping a 16-year-old girl in a south Belfast park in July 2020 and of raping and sexually assaulting another girl, also aged 16, at a party in his house in May 2021.

He was 16 at the time of the Helen’s Bay rape.

The court had heard that on July 17, 2021, the victim and a group of friends got the train from Belfast to Helen’s Bay where they enjoyed a day at the beach.

She said that as she was making her way back to the train at around 8pm, the defendant “grabbed” her by her waist and pulled her into a forested area. The teenager said the defendant then pushed her down, that she landed on her front and that she was then raped.

Saying her attacker was “three times my size”, she said she kept saying “no” and that her legs were being stung by nettles.

She added: “I couldn’t fight him. I was saying no but he told me to shut up. I was shouting at him to get off me. I kept saying no and that I didn’t want this.”

The victim said she told the man no “at least seven times” and that she was face down “the whole time”.

She said the incident lasted around 10 minutes and that it left her with “multiple cuts” all over her legs.

Photographs she took of the injuries to her legs were shown to the jury, as was a video she took prior to the rape in which she can be heard telling him to “f*** off”.

The complainant said, “It properly hit me the next morning what had happened,” adding that he messaged her on Snapchat telling her to get the morning after pill.

She said this message “disgusted” her, adding: “I thought: ‘You just raped me.’ I didn’t reply and I haven’t spoken to him since.”

The defendant had claimed in court that the girl had instigated sex and that it was fully consensual.

He confirmed he had been at the beach with friends that day and “bumped into” the girl, whom he had “flirted” with previously on Snapchat, as he walked back to the train.

He claimed she started kissing him and that he “kissed her back”.

He told the jury she started performing oral sex on him and that she “just sort of stopped”. When asked what happened next, he said: “I asked if she wanted to do anything else and she said ‘yes’ and she suggested that we have sex.”

He claimed that after consensual sex, he threw a condom into bushes, before they walked up to the train halt. He said that afterwards they continued messaging on Snapchat.

His version of events was rejected by the jury, who returned a guilty verdict on the rape charge.

After bail was granted, the defendant was placed on the sex offenders’ register. The length of time he will remain on it will be determined when he is sentenced in June.