Woman tells court she was raped with a broom

A woman has described to a jury how she recalled staring up at a Christmas tree while a man sexually assaulted her with a broom handle in a room with other people.

The woman, who revealed she had been drinking heavily at the time, said she remembered “a lot of shouting going on” from others and her fear and pain while she lay naked.

The 37-year-old man, who can not be named, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping her with an object by penetrating her anus and vagina with a broom in Kerry on Jan 7, 2011.

The complainant told Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, she did not know whether she had stumbled or tripped, but recalled experiencing “not a normal pain” as she drifted in and out of consciousness while the man assaulted her.

She said she had been drinking in the house where the alleged incident occurred and went to lie down in one of the bedrooms. She woke up to feel cold liquid with a “distinct smell of bleach” being poured over her by a female.

She said the accused had also been present, but had not poured any bleach.

The woman next recalled being back in the sitting room wearing different clothes as people were “coming in and out”.

She got up to go to the bathroom and on the way back she said she “stumbled or was tripped”. She remembered hearing the broom being broken.

The woman said the accused put this broom into her anus and vagina.

“I just remember the look in that man’s eyes,” she said.

She was taken out of the house after the assault and put to bed in another premises. The next day she went to her mother’s house, where she stayed for a few weeks bleeding and in pain.

She said gardaí came to the house after a friend told them her allegations and she was brought to hospital.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, put it to her that the hospital reported no injuries to her private parts.

She accepted her visit to another hospital might have been drink-related but said she had a clear memory of going into the house prior to the alleged attack.

She accepted she might have had drink-related blackouts, but denied memory lapses of whole days.

Mr Grehan said his client had not done anything to her and that “it is the case that you have no real memory of what happened”.