I only kissed alleged victim, says rape accused

A man accused of raping a woman in a Dublin hotel told gardaí in interview that he could not get his "head around" why she and her friend would make up the allegation but suggested it was because he had assaulted her.

Detective Sergeant Mark Kavanagh told Ms Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting (with Ms Mary Rose Gearty BL), that when the accused was asked why gardaí found him hiding in a linen closet, he replied that he could not find his way out of the hotel and had fallen asleep there.