Alleged rape victim says attacker liked to see her 'struggle'

An eastern European woman who claims she was raped by a Lithuanian national in Cork has claimed at the Central Criminal Court that he said he did it because he liked to see her "scream and struggle".

The woman told defence counsel, Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC (with Mr Tim O'Connor BL), in her continued cross-examination that the accused made this reply to her when she asked him why he raped her.

The 35-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman on January 16, 2005 in a house in Cork.

The complainant agreed with Mr O'Carroll that she had been drinking during the previous day in Cork city, had drunk vodka and Red Bull at the party in the house and was drunk when she went to bed around 3am.

She denied she was "very drunk" because she didn't get very drunk and had also been eating and dancing.

She agreed also, on day-three of the trial, that the accused said something like that he had no memory of doing anything wrong but that if he did he was sorry. "Sorry does make a rape go away," she told counsel.

She said that during the alleged rape she was screaming in both Russian and English because she didn't know what language the accused spoke.

She denied an assertion by Mr O'Carroll that she was "moving the chairs around on the Titanic" by changing her evidence concerning the alleged event and had said at a previous hearing that at first she didn't recognise the man raping her.

"It was dark in the room but it wasn't pitch dark. I thought it was the Lithuanian man but I wasn't 100% sure until the light was turned on," she said.

The hearing continues before Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins and a jury of seven men and five women.