Rape accused 'couldn't understand why girl was crying'

A man accused of trying to rape a woman in a Donegal lane-way told gardaí he couldn't understand why a girl would start having sex and then start crying.

The 25-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to attempted rape of a woman near a Co Donegal town on October 1, 2006 and to sexually assaulting her on the same occasion.

Detective Sergeant Sylvester Henry told Mr Paul Coffey SC, prosecuting, that the accused said the complainant "went with him" outside a disco and he offered to take her to get some cigarettes.

They went to his van but he said he did not remember where he had driven after stopping at a nearby service station to buy the cigarettes.

Det. Gda Henry said the accused claimed he stopped the van and "we just started going with each other".

He said the sexual activity that followed was consensual and denied that she hit him while trying to get away or that she bit his fingers which she claimed he had forced down her throat. He also denied he had done that.

The accused told gardaí he stopped the sexual activity when she started crying and "going on about her boyfriend".

"You go with a girl and then she starts crying. What are you supposed to do?," the accused said.

Det. Gda Henry said the accused claimed he offered to drop her back into town but she said no and called him a "wanker" so he dropped her at a junction on the way back into the town and went home, adding that he couldn't understand it "when a girl goes with you and then starts crying".

Dr Maureen Bonar-Scally told Mr Coffey (with Ms Karen O'Connor BL) that when she examined the accused while he was under questioning he had a large bruise over his eye and bruising to both legs. He also had a "significant abrasion" to his right index finger that could be inconsistent with a bite mark.

However, Dr Bonar-Scally agreed with Mr John Kelly SC, defending that if she had not been told he had suffered a bite mark she would not have identified the abrasion as such.

Another witness told Mr Kelly that she had met the accused in a nightclub on the night of the incident and they had both been pushed to the ground by bouncers running to intervene in a fight. She said she hurt her arm while the accused fell on top of her and injured his face.

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