Man ‘tried to abduct schoolgirl’ from street
Court told girl, 15, ‘grabbed at bus stop’
A SCHOOLGIRL has told of her terror as a man tried to abduct her off the street.
The 15-year-old, who was waiting for a bus, told a jury how the man grabbed her and tried to drag her into his waiting gold Mercedes.
In the dock at Reading Crown Court, accused of attempted kidnapping, was 40-year-old Omar Brown, of Oxford Road in Newbury.
Jurors have heard how the married father-of-five initially approached the girl and told her she was “gorgeous... like a Kardashian” before asking her to join him for a drink.
When she told him her age, the prosecution claim, he was undeterred and, seeing her bus approach, tried to abduct her.
The schoolgirl had been waiting in the gathering dusk for a bus in Purley when Mr Brown’s car drew up shortly after 8.45pm and he got out.
Mr Brown denied attempted kidnap and trying to abduct a child on August 7, 2020.
He has previous convictions for causing criminal damage, drug-driving and drink-driving but no relevant offences, said Steven Pidcock, defending.
Giving evidence, Mr Brown said he had approached the girl as a concerned citizen because he thought he had previously seen her consorting with people he knew to be drug dealers.
He told police in a prepared statement following his arrest that he was “concerned for her safety”.
Mr Brown initially denied giving the false name ‘Damien’ to her – although he changed his story after jurors were shown film footage of him doing just that.
Giving evidence he said: “Thinking about it, I might have done; it was a name I used on dating sites.”
Jurors were shown a photograph taken by the girl’s mother which purported to show a red mark on her arm but Mr Brown vehemently denied laying hands on her.
He had merely offered her a lift for her safety, he said.
Mr Brown added that he had been forced to quit his job as a refuse collector after his charges were reported in the local press, adding: “It’s been a nightmare, really.”
Under cross examination by Denis Barry, prosecuting, Mr Brown accepted that – despite his assertion he only wanted to give her fatherly advice about safety – he had found her attractive and conceded: “I told her she was beautiful and stuff like that.”
He also conceded that, despite his assertion that he had seen her consorting with drug dealers – a claim the girl denied – he had told her: “I’ve never seen you before”.
Mr Brown claimed he believed the girl had been at least 17 years old.
Judge Paul Dugdale, explaining one thrust of the prosecution cross examination, asked Mr Brown: “Do you think it’s appropriate and OK for you to get out of a car and start chatting up a girl [at least] 20 years younger than you at a bus stop?”
Mr Brown replied “Yes, I thought it was OK.”
However, he said that, “looking back, I should have carried on driving”.
Mr Barry asked whether Mr Brown could see the irony in his assertion that he had wanted to approach a girl he had never met to warn her about getting into strangers’ cars before offering her a lift.
He replied: “I was just trying to give advice.”
Mr Barry asked: “You grabbed her with both hands... then you tried to pull her into your vehicle, didn’t you?”
Mr Brown denied this and said the girl had invented her account.
He further denied ever having asked her to go for a drink with him.
However Mr Barry pointed out that, in a defence statement, he had said that very thing.
Mr Brown also denied to jurors that he had discussed whether or not she had a boyfriend. Mr Barry pointed out that, again, his defence statement contained the line: “She said she had a boyfriend.”
Jurors had retired to consider their verdict as this newspaper went to press.