An Afghan man accused of raping an autistic 14-year-old girl in the toilets of a train told a court he believed she was at least 17 because she was wearing make-up and carrying a drink.
Baryalai Rahimi, 25, is alleged to have raped the teenager three times on a London-bound Southeastern service on 5 February. His friend, Mirebadurahman Sadat, 29, is accused of assaulting her afterwards.
The two men are alleged to have followed the girl from a station in rural Kent on to the train. Both deny a total of 20 charges, including rape, sexual assault and sexual activity with a child.
Giving evidence at Inner London Crown Court, Rahimi said he initially thought the girl was 18 or 19. Asked why, he replied: “When I looked at her at the first glance I thought she was 18 or 19 because she had a drink in her hand and she had make-up on.”
He claimed he asked her age and that she replied she was “over 16”, which he understood to mean 17. When his barrister, Sebastian Cox, asked whether she had given her true age, Rahimi replied: “Never.”
Rahimi, of Southall, west London, said he and Sadat had travelled to Kent in an attempt to obtain driving licences after being unable to find work locally.
He told jurors he had been taking a painkiller after breaking his nose, had smoked cannabis and was “high” when he encountered the girl on the station platform. He said she asked whether he was all right after he nearly walked into a lamppost.
Rahimi said he offered her his jacket because he thought she might be cold. He said he could not remember whether he had hugged her, but denied kissing her on the platform.
The court previously heard that DNA recovered from the girl’s clothes probably belonged to the two defendants. Forensic expert Kassandra Harris told the jury that her findings supported the presence of Sadat’s DNA, while accepting that a few skin cells could be transferred to a surface and that it was not possible to say how this had occurred.
In a police interview played to the court, Rahimi said the girl had appeared to be 17 or 18 and claimed that events had been consensual. “The female was the one who was very forward,” he said. “What happened was all started and instigated by her and was consensual.”
Sadat, of Cricklewood, north-west London, told police he had memory problems but denied the allegations.
The girl told police that other passengers appeared not to notice what was happening on the busy train because “everyone was just on their phones”. She also said she felt she “couldn’t physically stand up and walk away from him”.
Rahimi denies three counts of rape, two of sexual assault, one of assault by penetration and six alternative counts of sexual activity with a child. Sadat denies two counts of assault by penetration, two of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child.
The trial continues.
