Donegal man found not guilty of rape

A Donegal man has been found not guilty of raping a teenage girl in his car over three years ago.

A jury in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found him not guilty of falsely imprisoning the girl, threatening to kill her and raping her on August 25, 2004 in County Donegal.

The jury of seven men and five women took an hour and a half to return the verdict on day-six of the trial.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy discharged the 26-year-old man from the court.

During his six-day trial he gave evidence that he had consensual intercourse with the girl in his car after she made the first sexual advances.

He told his counsel, Mr Roger Sweetman SC (with Mr Peter Nolan BL), that she unbuttoned his trousers, pulled down her underwear and reclined her own seat. He said that the whole sexual experience "from kissing to intercourse lasted roughly 40 minutes" and that he fell asleep shortly afterwards.

He added: "I didn't know she was a 14-year-old girl at that time."

The girl earlier told prosecuting counsel, Mr Justin Dillon SC (with Mr Stephen McCann BL), that the accused drove her past her family home to a secluded area where he raped her "three or four times" in the back-seat of his Ford Mondeo car.

She claimed she tried to get out of the car but it was locked.

She disagreed with Mr Sweetman when he suggested an engineer had verified that there was no deadlock system for that model and year of Mondeo car and it was impossible to lock it from the inside.

She replied: "I tried the door and it was locked."

She claimed the man had gripped her under the arms to pull her forcefully into the back-seat of the car but Mr Sweetman suggested that it would have been impossible to pull her through the small gap between the front seats without bruising her body.

She agreed with him that the doctor who examined her said that she didn't find any signs of bruising.

Dr Eliza Joseph, who travelled from India to give evidence, said last week at the start of the trial that she didn't find any signs of injury or abrasions consistent with the woman's claims.

She said: "I wasn't sure she was definitely raped."

Mr Justice McCarthy thanked the jury members and excused them from further duty for five years.