Kerry man pleads not guilty to Christmas Eve rape

The trial has opened at the Central Criminal Court of a Kerry man charged with threatening to kill and attempting to rape a then 17-year old girl on Christmas Eve two years ago.

The 23-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to three alternative counts of attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault of the girl in a Kerry town in the early hours of December 24, 2004.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a count of threatening to kill the girl and a count of assault with intent to commit rape on the same date.

Mr John Aylmer SC (with Mr Tom Rice BL), prosecuting, said that it would be the prosecutions case the accused attempted to rape the girl but should the jury not be convinced of this by the evidence they were to consider the alternative counts of aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault.

The victim, in giving evidence, agreed with Mr Aylmer that she got a lift into town with a relative on the night of December 23, 2004 after she had finished a baby-sitting job where she met several friends in a bar.

She said she had a vodka and Red Bull and a Sambuca to drink and remained there until after a draw had finished in the bar at 1am at which point she went onto a local night club.

She said she joined her friends who were dancing for a period and then rested while she had a Bacardi Breezer. When she came back to the dance floor she said a man she did not know approached her and they started talking and dancing.

She said she told him she was leaving and he offered to walk her to a taxi. She agreed they left the night club together by a side entrance and walked through the town together talking about work until they reached a cul de sac which they were recorded on CCTV footage entering together.

She said the accused "appeared sober and was smoking a cigarette".

She agreed they kissed for a while but said he then put his hands down her top and felt her breasts at which point she asked him to stop and punched him in the chest "to get him away from me".

She told Mr Aylmer this made him "cross and angry" and he knocked her to the ground where she landed on her knees. She said he then pulled her jeans and pants down while she shouted "leave me alone".

She alleged he told her "in a very threatening manner" to "shut up" or he was going to kill her. She said he covered her mouth with his hand to make her stop shouting and she said she "didn't know if he was going to rape me or kill me or both".

She said he then turned her around so that she was sitting on her bottom and caught her by the throat pushing her down on the ground on her back. She said he then put his legs on either side of her and pulled down his own pants and underwear.

She told Mr Aylmer that the accused was "trying to put his penis up to my vagina area" but she kept her legs together. She said he was holding her right hand but she was hitting out with her left hand and shouting.

She agreed she then heard a man come up and say "leave her alone". She said the accused jumped up and fixed his clothes before the man caught him by the chest and pushed him up against a car. The man told her to "get away" and she left the area.

She said she met a girl she knew shortly after who arranged a taxi home for her. On her return home she raised the alarm with another friend and relative who subsequently told her father what had happened.

She agreed her father alerted the gardaí and she spoke to a female garda at the station telling her what happened. She agreed she was also examined by a doctor the same day where she complained of some "marks and bruises" including "redness on her neck".

Earlier Mr Aylmer said in outlining the evidence the jury would also hear from witnesses who were residents of the lane where the incident is alleged to have occurred and who overheard a commotion on the night including the man who is alleged to have intervened.

The trial continues before Mr Justice O'Higgins and a jury of three women and nine men.