A Nigerian teenager, Opemipo Jaji, 18, accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in a park had attacked another schoolgirl a year before, a court heard yesterday.
Jaji is alleged to have followed the 11-year-old girl as she made her way home from school on a bus.
He followed her and dragged her into Jubilee Park, Enfield, north London, and subjected her to a three-hour rape ordeal in November, last year, the court heard.
Her glove had been stuffed in her mouth and she had been stripped and assaulted.
Rosina Cottage, QC, prosecuting, said the child had caught a bus in Enfield Town along with her friend at 4.30pm.
“She was 11-year-old and was wearing her school uniform,” said Miss Cottage.
“She got on the bus with her friend and they were giggling and chatting. Also on the bus was a young male, the defendant. He watched her get off the bus and followed her.
“He dragged her into a local park in the dark and raped her. She ran home bleeding and injured. Her blood and DNA were found on his clothes and bag.”
Miss Cottage said the girl had been expected home by 5pm and her parents rang police by 5.30 after she failed to turn up.
The girl appeared at 8pm. ‘She was dishevelled, dirty and panicky.
‘She had a crop-top bra in her hand and said she had been attacked.’
The girl said her attacker ‘had kept making fists and cracking his knuckles’.
She later told police that after getting off the bus, she noticed a male walking in front and then behind her. She had tried to avoid him because she felt something was not right.
In the park, he kept asking for her phone – which she did not have – her Oyster travel card and her keys.
At one point, he had threatened to stab her if she moved and caught her when she tried to run away.
He had also threatened to film her and send copies to children at her school, she said.
The girl ran home dishevelled and bleeding and underwent an operation for her injuries.
Jaji, of Edmonton, north London, denies rape and says he was not the attacker, although he was on the same bus.
He claims her DNA on his bag, trainer shoe and the waistband of his boxer shorts was from when he went into the park later that evening, the Old Bailey heard.
But Rosina Cottage, QC, prosecuting, said it was ‘not a coincidence’ that in 2011, Jaji pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and robbing another girl dressed in her school uniform.
Miss Cottage said a tie had been placed in her mouth, her clothes had been removed and she was robbed of her telephone and sexually assaulted.
She added: ‘He had an interest in pre-pubescent girls and sexual acts with pre-pubescent girls.’
Blood belonging to Jaji’s victim was found on his trainers and Adidas bag and provided a one-in-a-billion DNA match, the court heard later.
Further DNA from the girl was also found inside the waistband of his boxer shorts, while his fingerprints were discovered on the girl’s Oyster card wallet.
Jaji initially claimed the blood was from an accident and work. But he then changed his story and now says he went to Jubilee Park to ‘think about his music’.
‘He says he must have picked up the traces of her DNA from the grass,’ said Ms Cottage. ‘The prosecution say this is a desperate attempt to find any explanation.’
The park was cordoned off for sniffer dog searches very shortly after the girl reported she had been attacked, she added. ‘He brutally terrified and raped her,’ said Ms Cottage.‘
Jaji had attended an appointment with the probation service just 90 minutes before the attack, the court has heard.
Jaji was arrested a few days later after CCTV was viewed, and his bedroom searched. A book was found about a little girl being sexually assaulted, ads for child care vacancies and a picture of a little girl in Australia marked FC – a possible reference to Facebook.
There was also an article about missing April Jones ‘the little girl who was taken,’ said Miss Cottage.
Miss Cottage outlined the attack on the schoolgirl in the park.
The trial was adjourned to tomorrow.
