PHOEBE STEWART
July 8th, 2008
A 13-YEAR-OLD girl was forced to run naked in the street after being stripped of her clothes and raped, before collapsing into the arms of a good Samaritan, a court heard yesterday.
The Northern Territory Supreme Court heard the teen was ''significantly'' drunk and high on cannabis when she was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 20-year-old man in a Palmerston park last September.
Crown prosecutor Mark Thomas told the jury yesterday the girl ''struggled free'' of her attacker, and ran semi-naked through a darkened city street for help.
''She ran down Dillon Circuit wearing only a glitter top on, (a) small top, with no clothing at all on the bottom half of her body,'' Mr Thomas said.
He told the court a local resident moving her car about 8pm saw the girl running naked, and as she went to her aid the girl collapsed into her arms, covered in dirt and scratches, and with leaves in her hair.
The court heard the drunken girl was distraught.
The alleged attacker has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent and the aggravated assault of the girl's friend.
Mr Thomas said the girl and her 14-year-old friend took a bus to Palmerston where they were invited to a house to drink and smoke cones with friends on September 9.
He said the younger girl later left the house with the defendant to make a phone call from a public phone box about 6.40pm, but her girlfriend tried to stop her because she was too drunk.
''The other girl confronted (the defendant) and took hold of (her friend's) arm and told her that he was not leaving,'' Mr Thomas said.
But the man allegedly pushed the older girl into a metal pole and said: ''F*** off. She is coming with me.''
Mr Thomas told the court the victim and the 20-year-old walked the streets for about an hour, and she repeatedly tried to run in front of him to get away, before he pushed her to the ground, stripped off her clothes and forced her to have sex.
He allegedly later discarded the girl's underwear, skirt and shorts near a vacant block, and her sunglasses were found in Dillon Park. Her thongs were never found.
The defence is yet to present its case. The trial continues before Justice David Angel today.
source : http://www.ntnews.com.au
