A 27-year-old man dragged a teenage girl to the bottom of a beach near Brighton Pier and raped her, a trial has heard.
The 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was out celebrating a friend’s birthday the night the alleged attack took place on July 16th, 2022.
Joseph Eubank, of Hove, is on trial at Lewes Crown Court accused of two counts of rape of the girl, which he denies.
Jurors heard on Monday how the teenager had been drinking vodka with friends before they got separated and she was approached by a man she had never met before, while she was looking for her lost phone.
Opening the case, prosecutor Beverly Cripps, said how the girl had never been drunk like that before and “couldn’t see straight.”
She was holding onto the bar where she was standing by some steps because she was swaying, the court heard.
The prosecutor said the teenager remembered Eubank asking her age, to which she replied 16, and he said he was 26, before saying something like “let’s go look at the moon”.
Ms Cripps said: “She said that he had initially been friendly but had become more aggressive as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up moving her quickly down the beach on each time she fell.
“She described her confusion as to how she had got so far down the beach.”
In a video interview speaking to police, the girl recalled how she kept falling down on the stones because she couldn’t stand up, and how Eubank had a hold of her wrist, adding: “It was quite tight, he kept pulling me back up and I was falling on the stones.
“Pretty sure he kissed me, I was very confused, I didn’t realise I had been dragged down to the beach bit.”
The girl claimed the defendant was “rushing” to get down the beach, and said he pulled her down to the bottom of the groynes near the sea during the incident at around 11.30pm.
It was on the beach where the girl claimed Eubank forced her down on him, before she was on her front lying on the stones.
She realised afterwards she had been raped, the court heard.
Asked what was going through her head, she told police: “I was thinking how did I get into this position. It felt like I was up at the steps a second ago.”
Jurors were told after Eubank walked away and the girl was “immediately upset” and crying, and found her friend’s phone to call them and tell them what happened.
She told police she said to her friend: “I said some guy took me down to the bottom of the beach and I think he raped me.
“I think after that I was just crying for about half an hour probably.”
Ms Cripps told the jurors there is no dispute on behalf of Eubank that he intentionally penetrated the teenager, but that the issue was of consent.
“The Crown say (she) is vulnerable because of her age, drunken condition… (she was) so intoxicated she was drifting in and out and had a dim appreciation of what happened to her and therefore did not consent.
“Joseph Eubank’s case is she did consent and she was able to do so freely.”
The court also heard how a beach cleaner found the girl’s phone and when it was returned to her, she found a message from an unknown number sent a couple of hours after the incident saying: “Hey pup are you ready for round two”.
She said the text scared her so she deleted it and told police later when the investigation progressed.
Eubank denies the charges and the trial continues.
