A WOULD-be rapist who tried to force himself on a 14-year-old girl in a multi-storey car park after plying her with cocaine and alcohol was foiled when the occupants of a car went to her rescue.
Curtis Pike ran off and later tried to blame the girl’s rescuers for the attack – and pleaded not guilty to attempting to rape her.
But when he appeared at Warwick Crown Court for a pre-trial hearing, he changed his plea to guilty and also admitted possessing cocaine.
Pike, 24, of Sadler Road, Radford, Coventry, was jailed for seven years and two months after being given credit for his pleas, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Prosecutor Caroline Harris said that in June a 14-year-old girl was with a friend in the Foleshill Road area when Pike approached them and asked them to go with him for a few drinks.
The girl agreed, although her friend tried to dissuade her, and went with Pike to a park where he said he wanted to take her back to his place and ‘do stuff’ with her, at which she made it plain she was just 14.
But Pike, who persuaded her not to answer her phone when her friend tried to call her, tried to kiss her, and gave her some cocaine, which he also took, and a can of lager from a pack of four, as he drank the other three.
She wanted to leave, but Pike told her: “You’re not getting away without giving me something.”
He then took her to a shop where he got a bottle of vodka and some Coca-Cola, before going down an alleyway where he kept trying to put her hand inside his underwear.
He led her to a multi-storey car park where they had some vodka and Coke, and the girl began feeling dizzy.
The girl then urinated behind a car, but before she was able to pull her jeans up, Pike pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her, said Miss Harris.
“Fortunately, there was a car nearby with men in it who shouted at him to get off her.”
They asked the girl how old she was and tried to detain Pike, but he ran off, so they put her in their car and said they would drop her off at the end of the road.
Pike was already there and had been shouting for someone to call the police, claiming he had been assaulted – and that two men had been raping the girl on the car park and had robbed him.
When the men arrived with the girl, they shouted that Pike had tried to rape her as Pike’s fiancée, who was there and had heard his assertion, was helping the girl.
The police had been called, and when Pike was arrested nearby he had £20 worth of cocaine on him.
He admitted meeting the girl and that he had kissed her as they drank lager, and that he had given her cocaine which he said she had asked for.
He said it was the girl who had wanted the vodka, and claimed they had touched each-other – but denied trying to rape her, added Miss Harris.
Derek Johashen, defending, said: “He expresses extreme remorse, and he pleads guilty not knowing exactly what went on that day. He expresses extreme distress for the victim of his crime and feels extremely ashamed.”
Jailing Pike, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told him: “You were a man of 23 years of age, and she is 14.
“She was a damaged individual before you came across her, and you exploited that vulnerability on that afternoon and behaved towards her in a way which has exacerbated her difficulties.”
