Alleged rape victim denies 'kissing and cuddling' accused

A Tipperary woman has denied "kissing or cuddling" with a family friend she accuses of raping her as she slept in her father's house hours after she had been celebrating her 19th birthday.

The 26-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping her in Tipperary on November 21, 2004.

The complainant told defence counsel, Mr Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC (with Mr Carl Hanahoe BL), in cross-examination, that a claim by the accused that she had kissed or cuddled him before, other than as a friend was untrue. She denied she had "snogged" him that night before they went back to her father's home.

She told Mr O Lideadha she had been "best friends" with the accused and agreed it was a possibility that he fancied her, but said it did not matter to her as she knew that nothing would ever happen between them.

She denied a suggestion that there was any "middle ground" where the accused may have believed she had agreed to sex.

She said: "How could he believe I would willingly have sex with him when I was asleep?"

She agreed she might have been annoyed with her boyfriend because he left her birthday celebrations early to meet his friends. She said she could not remember if she had been "f**king and blinding" her boyfriend when speaking about it later to the accused in her father's house.

She denied that she and the accused had their arms on each other as they lay on the bed chatting that night. She said a suggestion that they had started kissing and touching was "complete lies" and said she had never got on top of him.

She told Mr O Lideadha that she had woken up to find the accused man on top of her and inside her.

She said a suggestion that she had returned to the bedroom after the alleged incident and asked the accused not to tell her boyfriend they had sex was "a pure joke, I got out of the house as quick as I could".

She accepted that a medical examination report indicated that swelling and redness in her vagina could have been caused by "rough sex" and that she first had sex as a 15-year old with an 18-year-old boyfriend she had been going out with for a number of years.

She told prosecuting counsel, Ms Pauline Walley SC (with Mr Garnet Orange BL), during re-examination, that she had not outlined what effect alcohol had on her that night to gardaí because she was not asked.

The hearing continues before Mr Justice George Bermingham and a jury of six men and six women.