Court hears accused’s mobile rang during toilet rape

THE trial of a man accused of raping a woman in a public toilet in a Cork town has heard details of his mobile phone calls around the time of the incident.

A detective gave evidence that the accused made two phone calls, one shortly before the incident and one shortly afterwards. He also received two phone calls in the same period.

The complainant claims she was dragged into a cubicle when she was drying her hands at the sink. She had been running errands in the town.

She said she was subjected to around half an hour of rape and sexual violence before her attacker let her go. She also said he was wearing women’s underwear during the attack.

The woman had also given evidence that at one point during the incident, the attacker’s phone rang. She said he took it out and checked to see who it was but did not answer.

The 36-year-old foreign national has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 12 counts, including rape, oral rape, anal rape, threats to kill, assault causing harm, sexual assault and false imprisonment during the attack on the woman on March 9, 2010.

A detective told Cathleen Noctor, prosecuting (with Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC) that the rape occurred at a time approximately between 2.10pm and 2.40pm.

He said he took possession of the accused’s phone several days later and checked the call logs.

He said there were two outgoing calls, at 1.50pm and 3.02pm, according to the clock on the mobile phone. Each call lasted several minutes. There were two received calls, one at 2.47pm which had a duration of zero minutes and zero seconds, and the other at 2.55pm lasting one minute and ten seconds.

He also had two missed calls at 11.34am and 3.42pm. The detective said when he checked the clock on the mobile phone he found it to be two minutes and two seconds fast.

The witness agreed with defence counsel, Ronan Munro (with Tim O’Leary SC) that the accused had provided the PIN number for the phone during interview, allowing gardaí to access the information.

He also agreed that when he turned the phone on recently the clock was wrong by 40 minutes. He said this could be because it has been turned off for a long period since the investigation.

When opening the case Ms Ní Raifeartaigh said it was not a “consent case” — meaning the defendant does not claim he had consensual sex with the woman.

“I don’t think at the end of the evidence you will be in any doubt that (the woman) was raped,” she told the jury.

“The question is whether it was (the accused) or someone else.”

Evidence has finished and the jury will hear closing speeches today before being addressed by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy.