Man accused of raping teen tells jury: 'I never went near him'

A Dublin man accused of raping a 13-year-old boy twice in a container in an industrial estate has told a jury that he never "went near him".

The 31-year-old accused told his defence counsel Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC (with Mr Tony McGillicuddy BL), "I never touched him" and added that "nothing happened" in the container.

The man has pleaded not guilty to two charges of raping the boy on August 18, 2007.

He said that he had been in the company of the complainant and five of his friends "four young fellas and two young ones" earlier that evening and that he had given the boys in the group cans of beer having offered to buy them alcohol.

He also admitted to giving one of them a cigarette when he had met him a few hours previously.

When asked by Mr McGuinness why he had done this, he replied "I just did".

He said that he and the complainant had gone into the local pub together but they had refused to serve him because he had had too much to drink.

The accused said that a door had been smashed as they were leaving the pub but he didn't know who had done it.

The accused told Mr McGuinness that later that evening the complainant said he had left his jacket behind in the container and he offered to bring him up there on his bike to collect it.

He said there was no jacket when they arrived at the container but he and the complainant sat down on some pallets and he gave the boy a can of beer and his phone to play a game on. He (the accused) was also drinking and smoking.

The accused denied that the complainant hit him with a can when he tried to touch "his private parts" and denied that he had raped him twice.

He said they had been there for about 25 minutes when "a fella hit the container with a pipe" and called the complainant's name before the boy got up and walked out.

The accused told the jury that the boy was fully dressed when he left the container and "there was nothing wrong with him". He again denied that he had raped him.

He did not accept a suggestion from Mr Paul Coffey SC (with Mr Garrett Baker BL), prosecuting, that he had waited with the teenagers "until the opportunity arose when you peeled off one member of the group and brought him to this isolated remote place".

When asked by Mr Coffey why he had not left the container as soon as he saw that the complainant's jacket was not there, the accused replied "I just didn't".

He denied that the complainant had been pulling up his trousers and had red eyes when he left him that night, as witnesses in the case had earlier testified.

"He was fully dressed there was nothing wrong with him," the accused replied.

The accused accepted that there was a significant age gap between him and the group of teenagers and further accepted that it had been inappropriate to spend so long in their company and to have given them alcohol.

The trial has reached its closing stages before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of five women and seven men.