Predator jailed after ‘brazen’ rape of 15-year-old girl on Bournemouth beach

A 20-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for six and a half years for the rape of a 15-year-old girl in a “brazen” attack on Bournemouth beach.

A jury found Gabriel Marinoaica, of Darlastan, Walsall, West Midlands, guilty of three charges of sexual assault and the rape of the teenager on July 18 2021.

He was acquitted of a further charge of sexual assault by biting her neck.

Judge Susan Evans KC told Bournemouth Crown Court that the attack undermined the public’s sense of safety on busy beaches.

“Young people should be safe on a busy beach on a sunny afternoon, sadly that was not the case. It was a brazen attack with many people around.

“The beach should be a safe place where young people can go without fear of being raped or sexually assaulted.

“What you did does undermine public confidence in the safety of a public place like that,” she said.

Judge Evans said that the defendant had behaved in a “predatory” manner and had used a form of “detention” by taking his victim, who could not swim, out of her depth into the sea.

Addressing Marinoaica, she said: “You pulled her out to see to the extent she couldn’t reach the bottom and notwithstanding that she told you she couldn’t swim, you took her further out to sea. That was plainly frightening and you made her vulnerable.”

The judge said that Marinoaica ignored the victim’s pleas that she did not want to have sex and added: “You placed your hand over her mouth, you did it so she couldn’t scream or get help, you knew full well that she was not consenting.”

Marinoaica was arrested 11 months after the assault and semen found in the complainant’s bikini matched his DNA.

As well as the prison sentence to be served in a young offender institution, the judge made Marinoaica subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 20 years and ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.