A jury has convicted a man of raping a 14-year-old girl in Brighton on a number of occasions over the course of two years.
Mark Rowley, 52, raped the schoolgirl in East Brighton Park, a jury found, and sexually abused her in the cemetery in Woodingdean as well as elsewhere.
Rowley, 52, of Anna Sewell Way, Chichester, was in his late forties when he raped and abused the girl, whose identity is protected by law. He denied two counts of rape.
But a jury convicted him of both counts and heard that he admitted a charge of meeting a child after grooming her and three offences of sexual activity with a child, one of the counts covering numerous occasions.
Beverly Cripps, prosecuting, told Rowley at Brighton Crown Court: “You had had this relationship with her – it was illegal – and you groomed her.
“All the way through, when she was scared of you, you manipulated a 14 and 15-year-old’s emotions to make it very difficult for her?
“And when you wanted to have sex with her, whether she wanted to or not, you went ahead anyway and had sex with her.”
The “relationship” emerged when Rowley’s partner became suspicious and bugged his car – and heard him having sex with the teenager.
He would meet the girl in Brighton or the car park of the West Hove branch of Sainsbury’s. They would drive to various places including a vape shop in Portslade. He would buy her vapes and alcoholic drinks.
The abuse came to the attention of the authorities when a school attendance officer, based in a Hove school, phoned the girl’s mother.
The attendance officer told the jury: “She broke down and said that Mark Rowley had raped her daughter.”
One of the schoolgirl’s long-time friends told jurors that Rowley and the girl would message on SnapChat, adding: “She said that Mark had raped her, beat her (and) manipulated her … she was 14.”
“She’d meet Mark in his car. He’d buy her vapes and alcohol. I said it was a bit weird because of the age difference.”
The friend added: “She often had bruises on her arm. They were quite bold and big.
“She said that Mark would hit her and beat her if she didn’t want to have sex with him or do what he wanted. She told me that he was very controlling.”
About two years ago, she started seeing someone her own age and told him what had happened and he urged her to go to the police.
In the witness box, the new boyfriend said: “She told me that she’d been in a relationship with Mark for two years and she was scared of leaving him.”
They would visit a vape shop in Portslade and a field in East Brighton, near the Marina, and a nearby golf course.
He told the court that he had seen photographs of her injuries including a black eye and bruises on her arms and legs.
He said: “He would punch her, grab her (and) he would make her have sex with him.”
Rowley admitted that there had been sexual activity between the pair but said that it was consensual.
Jonathan Ray, defending, asked Rowley if it was true that they had exchanged thousands of messages, many sexual and many loving, and Rowley said yes.
Mr Ray asked whether he had ever been violent towards the girl and he said that he hadn’t but he admitted shouting – although only about the state of the roads in Brighton.
Miss Cripps said that Rowley had told the girl to send him intimate pictures and videos of herself which she did.
She said: “As the association between the two of you went on, you became more domineering. Your age, your physical strength, your temper would frighten her.
“As a man who is 33 years older, you were able to manipulate her affection so she would do what you wanted.
“And when she tried to tell you that she didn’t want things or things had gone too far, you ignored her.”
Miss Cripps said that Rowley liked to choke and slap the girl during sex, adding that she had said that he went too far and she couldn’t breathe.
Rowley admitted that he liked to do both things but denied going too far and ignoring any protests from the schoolgirls.
The jury went out on Thursday (20 August), just after 11am. Yesterday, just before 11.30am, the jurors returned their verdict.
They found Rowley guilty of one count of rape on a single occasion in 2022 and a second count of raping the girl on an unspecified number of other occasions.
The trial judge, Recorder Tom Nicholson Pratt, remanded Rowley in custody to be sentenced on Monday 14 September.
