Gabriel Marinoaica jailed after Bournemouth beach rape

Gabriel Marinoaica, of Darlastan, Walsall, West Midlands, was found guilty of three charges of sexual assault and another charge of rape in March and was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court today, April 19.

Marinoaica, now 20, ‘took what he wanted and used his victim in the process’, Richard Tutts, prosecuting, said.

This was a ‘brazen act committed in broad daylight with many people around’ on someone who was ‘entitled to believe she would have been safe in such a circumstance’.

Marinoaica was 18 at the time and dragged his victim out to sea off the beach on July 18, 2021.

She was visiting the beach with two friends and were playing with a ball in the shallows, which floated towards him.

Initially, he refused to give it back, and then after returning it to her and exchanging names, he pulled her arm deeper into the water where she could not touch the bottom.

The victim told him ‘repeatedly no’ and that she was feeling uncomfortable, something Judge Evans said was ‘plainly frightening’ to her and ‘made her vulnerable’.

He then asked the victim if she wanted to ‘smash’, meaning to have sex, to which the victim said no, before Marinoaica touched her ‘everywhere’.

Judge Evans said: “I know what you were asking and she made it clear she wasn’t comfortable with that.”

He then raped her for about a minute, placing his hand over her mouth meaning she could not scream for help.

“That was a very significant thing to do,” Judge Evans said.

“It is quite apparent from that action that you knew full well that she was not consenting.”

He then ‘pursued’ the victim to get her Snapchat details.

“It may have been on your mind to try and make it look consensual, but you knew full well it wasn’t,” Judge Evans said.

Marinoaica was arrested 11 months later after semen found in the girl’s bikini matched his DNA.

In a victim impact statement read out by Mr Tutts, the victim said she suffers panic attacks and nightmares.

“During the day, my mind wanders and I think through the attack,” she said.

“I’m left with the image of him in my mind.”

The statement said she feels ‘mentally drained’ and that she has been ‘left feeling wary of male motivation towards me’.

“I used to have a huge love for the beach and the sea but I have lost it and I am left feeling uneasy,” she said.

“I feel so unsafe in the water now, going into the water makes me feel sick, I do not think I will ever be able to go in without someone with me as I am full of fear it will happen again.”

She added: “Even on my better days it is forever a part of me that will never be undone.”

Mitigating, Sophie Murray said that Marinoaica was immature and had a ‘lack of consequential thinking’ because of his age at the time, being 18.

He was on holiday with his family and had not been expected to have any interactions with ladies, and so was ‘overexuberant’ in response to her attentions.

He was ‘unable to see the consequences of his actions’ and ‘unable to control his sexual attractions’.

Ms Murray said he will have to ‘bear the brunt’ of the impact this has had on his family, and that he ‘feels the shame’ of that.

Judge Evans said the incident would ‘undermine the public confidence’ of being safe on a busy beach.

“Young people should be safe on a busy beach on a sunny afternoon. Sadly, that was not the case,” she said.

The judge also told the court how Marinoaica had been questioned by police in June 2021 about an unconnected allegation of rape but no further action was taken as the sex was found to have been consensual.

She said: “The police were involved and that interaction with the police doesn’t appear to have acted as a sufficient warning to you on how you should conduct yourself in sexual matters in the future.”

She sentenced Marinoaica to six and a half years in a young offenders’ institute, and will serve two thirds of the sentence in custody, before being released on licence.

Marinoaica was placed on the sexual offenders register for life and was given a sexual harm prevention order for 20 years.