Woman 'raped' in park by man who told her he was an 'illegal' and giving her 'vial' of liquid, court told

6 December 2023, 07:24 | Updated: 6 December 2023, 07:28

By EJ Ward

A woman was raped in a Skegness park by a man who told her he was "illegal," a court has heard.

Saad Gomaa, 34, denies raping the woman in the resort's Tower Gardens on the 9th June this year.

Lincoln Crown Court heard on Tuesday, that Gomaa had been spending time in Tower Gardens and must have seen the woman entering the park around 10.15pm.

Prosecutor Clive Stockwell KC told the just that the defendant, Gomaa, raped a woman in Tower Gardens.

The woman admitted to travelling to Skegness with two bottles of vodka and being very drunk. But, Mr Stockwell told the jury, "This was rape, pure and simple."

The Prosecutor showed the jury CCTV footage of Gomaa and the woman sitting on a park bench together.

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The woman realised "the man wasn't English," and believed he told her he was "illegal."

At some point they moved from the bench to a nearby bush area not captured on CCTV.

"She began to panic. She told the defendant she did not want to have sex with him. She told him she was on her period as a way of trying to desist him. In fact, she was on her period,"

Mr Stockwell recounted: "The prosecution case is at that time she was in no fit state to want or agree to sexual intercourse."

Additionally, the woman reported that Gomaa gave her an unknown substance in a phial. As Mr Stockwell told the jury, "She did not know what it was or what effect it may or may not have had."

Mr Stockwell emphasised that "All the time she was telling the defendant she did not want to have sex with him." However, "She was in no position to fight him off. He used her disability to his advantage by raping her."

The woman called 999 and police found her “in a very drunk and distressed state”.

Mr Stockwell said the CCTV also showed the woman making a 999 call just a short time later.

"She is holding a phone to her ear, what she was doing was calling immediately 999. It wasn't too long after that call the police found her. She was in a very drunk and distressed state at that time.

"In that state in which the officers saw her for safeguarding reasons they arrested her on a charge of drunk and disorderly."

Gomaa, of Skegness, was arrested in a nearby nightclub and interviewed with an Arabic interpreter.

Mr Stockwell said Gomaa agreed that it was him in the park and that sexual intercourse had taken place. "But his case was totally different," Mr Stockwell told jurors, "polar opposites."

"It was she who was hugging him, it was she who was kissing him, it was she was who leading him by his hand.

"His case is that she fully consented to sexual intercourse with him. In short, he did not rape her." But Mr Stockwell insisted the prosecution case is "this was rape, pure and simple."

The trial continues.