Cork man acquitted of rape

A Cork man has been acquitted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping a woman as she slept after a night out.

The 25-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman at his house on July 15, 2007.

Mr Justice Paul Carney thanked the jury for their attention to a "distressing case" and excused them from further service for the rest of their lives.

The accused told his defence counsel, Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, that he arrived back at his home at 3.15am that Sunday morning and introduced himself to the 25-year-old woman and her boyfriend who had been invited by his house mate after he met them in a local pub.

He said he agreed the woman's boyfriend could go to bed in his room and he remained behind in the sitting room chatting with her. He said they started "flirting" and exchanged compliments before she kissed him.

The man said they agreed to go to his bedroom and he asked her if her boyfriend would wake up. When she said he would not wake up they began touching, undressing and then having sex on the bed beside him.

He said the woman's boyfriend made a movement and she looked over at him. He said she asked him to stop and he left the room to go to sit on the couch where he fell asleep watching television.

The man said he was awoken by the woman's boyfriend tapping him on the face. He asked the accused if had just had sex with his girlfriend and why he had done so.

The accused said he replied "I don't know why" and the man became very angry and "started kicking stuff."

He said he made no reaction to the man's threats because he felt he had upset him by sleeping with his girlfriend and he apologised to him because he had "slept with his girlfriend behind his back".

The accused said when he attended at the garda station on Monday to retrieve some items taken during the search of the house on Sunday he was unaware that an allegation of rape had been made.

He agreed with Mr O'Loughlin during re-examination that neither the woman or her boyfriend accused him of rape before they left the house.

The man told prosecuting counsel, Mr Michael Counihan SC, during cross examination: "We were all drunk, they may not remember clearly but I do", after it was suggested to him that no other witnesses supported his contention that the woman remained in the sitting room after her boyfriend went to bed.

The man did not agree with Mr Counihan that the woman was "very drunk". He said: "She may well have been drunk, everyone was, but I do not recall her falling or slurring her words." He said that other witnesses from the house party who did not recall seeing him flirting with the woman were "all very drunk."

He told Mr Counihan that he had had sex in the "extraordinary position with her boyfriend in the bed beside you" because all the other rooms in the house were occupied or had no curtains. He said that the woman might have woken her boyfriend after he left to tell him she cheated on him "to be honest."

He agreed that he had not mentioned the boyfriend moving in the bed to gardaí and said he had only remembered it several months after his garda interview. He claimed he was "under pressure and in a state of shock" during the interview.

He denied that he did not initially remember the woman's name because he had never been introduced to her.