A MAN raped a 17-year-old girl in the "darkness and solitude" of his car after offering her a lift on a night out in Southampton, a court has been told.

Ismail Mahmood, 20, is on trial at Southampton Crown Court accused of raping the teenager earlier this year.

Prosecutor Rose Burns told the court that Mahmood offered to drive the girl home and she accepted.

But Ms Burns said the defendant stopped the car on a main road and turned off his engine.

Mahmood then climbed into the back and asked her to join him before pulling her clothes off and raping her, jurors were told.

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Ms Burns said Mahmood “seized the opportunity to rape her in the darkness and solitude of his car when she felt too drunk and too confused to take any kind of evasive action.”

She added the girl felt “confused” and “really drunk”, and added: “She didn’t know what was happening.”

The court heard the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pushed Mahmood away, got out of the car and fled.

She told police the next day and Mahmood was arrested after his car was identified by number plate recognition cameras in Southampton, the court was told.

When quizzed by police Mahmood of Bishopsfield Road, Fareham, said the complainant had asked for sex.

Jurors were told that Mahmood told detectives the girl refused to leave his car even though he told her she could go.

The defendant also told police she had then started kissing and hugging him, asking if he had a girlfriend before asking him for sex and he eventually agreed.

Ms Burns said Mahmood told police how the defendant said “it was hard to control himself".

Mahmood also told police they hugged and agreed to meet again before the girl left, the court heard.

Mahmood denies rape and the trial continues.

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