Neighbour gives evidence at Meath rape trial

A next door neighbour of a woman whose husband is accused of raping and assaulting her said she “heard a lot of shouting, screaming and banging” coming from the complainant’s house lasting several hours.

The 35-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to charges of rape and assault causing harm to the woman on April 12, 2009 at a house in Co Meath. A charge of false imprisonment has been withdrawn by the State.

The neighbour, who describes herself as a “private person”, told Mr Patrick Marrinan SC, prosecuting, on day three of the trial, that at 11.30pm on April 11, 2009 she went into her back garden to bring her dog inside.

She said she briefly spoke to the woman’s husband, who was in his back garden, through a wooden fence for two minutes.

“The woman came to her back door and shouted something at the man,” said the neighbour.

The neighbour said she went back inside her house and watched a DVD until 2.50am and when she went upstairs to her bedroom she could hear “a lot of shouting, screaming and banging from next door.”

She said the noise lasted until 5.30am and then she heard the front door of her neighbour’s house open and close.

“I looked out the window and saw the man leave the house and go to his car and then he walked back into the house,” she said.

She said she fell asleep and it was only when she received a call from her daughter at 8.30am which woke her up that she noticed the garda car outside her neighbour’s house.

She agreed with Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, defending that both the man and woman were “shouting but it was the woman who was screaming.”

Dr Sheila Stevens, a forensic medical examiner at the Sexual Assault Unit at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar gave evidence that she examined the complainant several hours after the alleged assault.

“The woman told me she last had sexual intercourse in January 2009 but the following day Garda Donna O’Sullivan phoned to say the complainant had sexual contact with the accused two weeks prior to the alleged assault,” Dr Stevens told Mr Marrinan.

When she examined the complainant she said she found “bruising over her upper lip, a chip missing from a tooth on the left side of her mouth, bruising to her inside lip and bruising under her chin.”

Dr Stevens said she also found an area of redness at the base of the woman’s neck and two small bruises to her right upper arm.

“There were red marks on her outer thighs consistent with finger and hand markings and I found a superficial abrasion to her vagina area,” said Dr Stevens.

Dr Stevens agreed with Ms Kennedy that it was “impossible to date bruising but bruising with a yellow colouring is more than 18 hours old,” and that she could not tell when the chipped tooth occurred.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and a jury of six men and six women.