Man told gardaí ‘it was not possible for a husband to rape wife’

A man convicted of raping his spouse told gardaí it was not possible for a husband to rape a wife, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

The 53-year-old pleaded not guilty to rape and false imprisonment of his wife at her home in Wexford in 2011.

In mitigation, the man’s defence counsel asked the judge to consider a possible “clash of cultures with regard to what was tolerated in one country and another”.