Rape accused 'harassed me for weeks', court hears

A Latvian woman who claims she was raped and falsely imprisoned by a Lithuanian man in a Co Cavan town last year has said he harrassed her by phone for several weeks before the incident.

A Latvian woman who claims she was raped and falsely imprisoned by a Lithuanian man in a Co Cavan town last year has said he harassed her by phone for several weeks before the incident.

The 38-year-old accused, with an address in Meath, denies raping the woman during the night of March 11, 2006. He also denies falsely imprisoning her and threatening to kill her on the same date at two separate locations in Counties Cavan and Meath.

The woman told prosecuting counsel, Mr Gerald Clarke SC (with Ms Anne-Marie Lawlor BL) that she started receiving calls from an anonymous man asking her out several weeks before the incident.

She said that one night about a week before she alleges the accused raped her, she went out to get her mobile phone from the car and he was waiting for her outside her house.

He introduced himself and told her he had been making the calls. He told her he had seen her about and wanted to go out with her.

"I said I just don't wish to meet with you," said the alleged victim. "I have nothing in common with you."

She said he then left but phoned the next day and said he wanted to meet up to apologise. He suggested meeting in a local nightclub and she agreed to go along, bringing a male friend with her.

That evening the accused came to pick them up. However, she told Mr Clarke, as soon as they arrived at the nightclub the accused said he wanted to talk to her friend and they went out to have a smoke. When they did not come back, she rang her friend who told her the accused had taken him back to his house.

The 24-year-old woman said she did not have the opportunity to talk to the accused at all that night and he did not apologise or explain himself.

She next spoke to him on the day of the alleged rape. He rang at around 4pm and said he still wanted to apologise. He told her some friends of his were having a party where they would be able to talk.

He mentioned an acquaintance of hers who would be there and told her that other people she knew would also be there. She agreed to go and he collected her at around 6pm in a car driven by her acquaintance.

She agreed with defence counsel, Mr Brendan Grehan SC (with Ms Miriam Reilly BL) that the accused gave her roses but said that she left them on the back seat of the car because they "meant nothing". She denied counsel's suggestion that it was a date.

The woman told Mr Clarke that when she got to the party she found she knew nobody there. She had one bottle of WKD but that was all because she had a headache and had to go to work early the next morning.

She said that at around 10pm she said she wanted to go home and the accused offered to drive her but after a short distance she realised they were going the wrong way.

He told her he was taking a short cut and, as she did not know the area, she did not argue. He drove down a road to a lake and she asked him again if this was the way home.

"He said to shut up," she told Mr Clarke. "I was feeling a little bit worried because he was calm all the time and then he changed into a serious person, angry."

She said the accused stopped the car by the lake and told her they would smoke a cigarette and then he would bring her home. He produced a couple of plastic cups and a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and told her they would now have a drink.

She told him she did not want one but he insisted and handed her a cup. She tipped the drink out of the car window. He poured her more and insisted she drink. She told Mr Clarke she put the cup to her lips but did not drink. She was getting scared at this point, she said.

She asked him again to take her home. "He said that I had to shut up and he would f**k me." She insisted she wanted to go home. "I told him that I wanted to go home and he told me again to shut up or he was going to beat me up."

She said that when she kept insisting she wanted to go home he said he would beat her and then kill her.

The woman told Mr Clarke that the accused put the seat back and climbed over to the passenger side. She tried to push him away, initially succeeding making him hit his head off the windscreen. After this he sat on her hands and started undoing her trousers and pulling them down.

While he was pulling down his own trousers she managed to pull back up her trousers. "He hit me in the stomach and sat on my hands again and pulled my trousers down." He then raped her.

She told him she was feeling sick but he did not stop. "I got sick when he was coming. I got sick and I got sick on the back seat."

She said that a car passed and the accused stopped and moved back to the driver's seat and got dressed. She also got dressed and told Mr Clarke she was feeling "terrified and ashamed".

He started the car and drove away from the lake, but once again went the wrong way. Eventually, they arrived at his house and he led her into the house telling her to take off her boots at the front door. He warned her not to make any noise because there were other people in the house.

She said he pushed her up the stairs and brought her into a bedroom. She told him she needed to go to the bathroom but he would not let her go on her own. He made her lie on the bed and told her to take her clothes off. He then got into the bed beside her.

When she told him she was feeling sick again, he told her to go and stand by the window. She told Mr Clarke that she was not actually sick, but she stayed by the window until he fell asleep.

She found her mobile phone, which he had taken from her at the lake, and called a friend. Then she tried to get out of the room but the door was locked. She climbed out of the window and down the drainpipe then walked towards the town in her stockinged feet.

She told Mr Clarke that all she wanted to do was get a taxi home but she met a Garda and went with him to make a complaint.

She told Mr Grehan, in cross-examination, she was not sure how long everything took, but denied she had fallen asleep at any stage. She said she did not know why there was a gap of three or four hours and said maybe things had taken longer than she had thought.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of nine men and three women.