Men on trial for raping homeless woman in hotel

The trial has begun of two men accused of raping a homeless woman in a hotel in Dublin city centre in March 2012.

Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting, said the victim was allegedly raped by one of the men in their hotel room while the other watched and refused to help her, saying “shut up, just let him do it”.

The woman said she had accompanied the men to the hotel to help them get a room because they are members of the Travelling community and may have been refused, said Ms Walley.

She said the woman met her female friend, who knew both the accused, earlier that day. They encountered the accused when they visited a bar on Parnell Street and began socialising with them. The woman was drinking heavily and taking cocaine.

The alleged victim’s friend went home. Counsel said the victim was asked by her friend to help the two men, so she went with them to Jurys Hotel at Christchurch, but were refused entry.

They then went to Kinlay House Hostel on Dame Street, where they were referred to George Frederic Handel Hotel on Fishamble Street, Dublin 2.

The victim went up to the hotel room with the men so as not to arouse suspicion, said Ms Walley, but when she then tried to leave she was grabbed by one of the men, pushed onto the bed and raped.

Ms Walley said the woman had kissed and cuddled the man earlier in the night, but that did not amount to consenting to sexual intercourse. When the woman tried to leave again, the other accused grabbed her and told her “if you ever tell anyone I’ll throw you out the window” and that they knew where she lived, said Ms Walley. The woman left the hotel at 2.30am.

Counsel said the accused told gardaí the alleged victim consented to sexual intercourse, and they also accused her of stealing a jacket.

Gardaí found bedclothes and towels from the hotel room and a jacket belonging to one of the men on the balcony of the hotel room directly below where the rape allegedly took place.

Ms Walley said that forensic evidence would show that the DNA of the accusedwas found on the towel.

Ms Walley said the man who had not raped her was “as much a perpetrator as if he had physically penetrated her himself.”

The trial continues before Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan and a jury of four women and eight men at the Central Criminal Court.