Alleged rape victim 'forced herself on me', says accused

A Limerick man accused of raping and sexually assaulting a woman as she walked home alone told gardaí she had kept "forcing herself on me" in a local disco earlier that Halloween Night.

The 21-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping and sexually assaulting the woman on October 31, 2005 in a Co Limerick town.

Sergeant Gerald Enright told prosecuting counsel, Ms Deirdre Murphy SC (with Ms Karen O'Connor BL), that the accused told gardaí he had been out celebrating his brother's 21st birthday in a local disco where he claimed the woman had approached him and kissed him.

He said that after saying goodnight to his brother and his girlfriend he had been walking back to his mother's house he stepped in under a tree to take a phone call as it had started raining.

Sgt Enright said the accused told gardaí he could not say who had called him because it was an unknown number and the phone was broken and he could not hear what was being said. He said he presumed it was one of his friends because they kept calling him by his nickname.

The accused said he had been on the phone a couple of minutes when the woman walked up behind him and started "forcing herself on me".

He said he pushed her away four times and the fourth time she fell on the ground. Two men were walking past at the time and when she "roared out rape", the men came over to him and held him.

Detective Garda Gerry McCarthy told Ms Murphy that the accused told gardaí the woman "kept coming up to me face to face" while he was on the phone.

He denied he had been lying on top of her and had walked towards the two men while pulling up his jeans. He told gardaí that "puddled" stains on the knees of his jeans had been caused when he fell over while urinating and similar stains on the toes of his shoes had been there when he left home.

Dr Eoin Curtin told defence counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC (with Laurence Goucher BL), that the antidepressant drugs the woman had been taking could cause psychological side effects, "including mania and amnesia" and that these effects could theoretically be exacerbated by alcohol consumption.

However, Dr Curtin agreed with Ms Murphy that such side effects were extremely rare and would be highly unlikely to appear suddenly after years of use.

The hearing continues before Mr Justice Barry White and the jury of five women and seven men.