Man told ‘scared’ schoolgirl, 14, she was ‘beautiful’ before raping her in city centre park after meeting her outside pub, court told

A man told a ‘scared’ 14-year-old girl ‘how beautiful’ she was before he raped her in a city park, a court has been told. 

Nicholas Foreman, 43, is accused of three counts of rape, one of sexual assault and four alternative charges of sexual activity with a child.

It is alleged he met the schoolgirl outside a Wetherspoon’s pub in Southampton city centre on the evening of February 15.

They then went to Houndwell Park, where the alleged offences took place at about 10.30pm.

In a video-recorded interview shown to the jury at Winchester Crown Court, the girl said she had met friends earlier in the evening, when they drank alcohol. 

She said that she then met the man outside the pub and they began talking before they walked towards the park.

The girl said: ‘He is just saying how beautiful I am for a 14-year-old girl.’

The complainant said that when they reached the park, they began kissing for one to two minutes before he sexually assaulted her.

She said: ‘I did try to stop and he just put his hands down my pants.’

She added: ‘I told him to stop about two times.’

The girl said that she then told the defendant that she needed to go to the toilet because she ‘wanted to go’.

She added: ‘I was a bit scared, I just wanted to get away from him.’

Charles Gabb, prosecuting, said: ‘This case is all about the temptation that she seems to have shown to this defendant three times her age.

‘He was unable to resist this temptation and embraced it with gusto.

‘It was just 26 minutes from the first time that the pair laid eyes upon each other to the time that the deed had been done. 

‘I’m not suggesting that it should be Mr Darcy like but even in these most liberal of times that is not just acting in haste but acting in the most hastily manner.

‘She was just 14 and a young 14 at the time of the incident. She appears to have been an exceedingly vulnerable young lady.

‘She apparently met up with friends at around midday on the Saturday. During the course of that day she drank to the point where she was in an appalling state.

Photos on Foreman’s social media show him to be a keen powerboating enthusiast

‘She drank wine, cider, gin and at least half a bottle of vodka.’

Mr Gabb said after watching the Premier League clash, Foreman and two friends went to a pub in Southampton but they left around 10pm.

The prosecutor said: ‘At 10:24pm he [Foreman] is seen to come outside with his mobile phone which is lit up. 

‘He is on the phone trying to secure an Uber home.. At this point he has never met [the 14-year-old girl] before.

‘Quite what it was to make Mr Foreman start talking to the child only he knows. But only 66 seconds later the two of them are walking off towards the park.

‘At 10:30pm he gets a message from Uber saying the taxi is on its way there but he chose to ignore it.

‘In the park things happen very very quickly because he makes no further effort than to go about five yards into the park.

‘[The 14-year-old-girl] says she remembers him making comments about her being 14 years old, meaning she must have told him when they were at the pub. 

‘He knew how old she was. She says he started kissing him but it was in the park where the three penetrations took place.

Police tape at the scene in Houndwell Park, Southampton following the alleged attack 

‘She managed to manufacture an excuse by saying she wanted to go to the loo and started to walk off.

‘She is distressed and later goes into another fast food enterprise and people in there phone the police.

‘At 11:21 he seems to be in an Uber and he messages his fiancé saying ‘In a taxi now. Be home in about 20 minutes XX’. 

‘He signs off with two kisses even though he has just betrayed her.’

The 14-year-old said that she told the defendant how old she was.

Foreman, from Christchurch, Dorset, has denied the offences.

The court heard he admitted having sexual intercourse with the complainant, but says that he believed she was 18 and that she had consented to the sexual acts.

The trial continues.