Rape accused admits lying to gardaí

A man on trial for the rape and sexual assault of a woman with a history of mental illness has told a Central Criminal Court jury that he lied to gardaí when he denied knowing the woman or having contact of a sexual nature with her.

The 31-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, sexual assault and entering a premises as a trespasser with the intent to commit sexual assault on January 16, 2007.

The man told Mr Paul Greene SC, defending (with Mr Breffni Gordon BL), that he first met the woman in a public house approximately two years before the alleged assault, where he chatted with her before asking her out.

A week later the man said he called to the woman’s house where he talked to both her and her mother before kissing the woman as he left the house. Two months later he called to the woman’s house where they kissed and went in to a darkened room where sexual contact took place.

The man told the court that it would be two years before he would again call to the woman's home on January 16, 2007. The woman had moved house by that stage but the man said he determined that she lived there as her car was parked outside.

Finding the door ajar, the man said he entered the house sometime after midnight and made his way to the woman’s bedroom.

He said sexual contact took place between the two. Asked by Mr Greene as to whether she screamed, told him to stop or told him she was unhappy at any juncture, the man replied “definitely not” to each question.

The man said he totally disagreed with the woman’s contention that he raped her and denied taking an intimate photograph of her.

He said he did not hold the woman down or restrain her in any way and said that she played an active part in events.

On Tuesday, the court heard how the man repeatedly denied knowing the woman, knowing where she lived, visiting her house or having any sexual contact with her over the course of three interviews with gardaí.

The accused man said he lied to gardaí about knowing the woman and having been to her house because he was shocked and frightened at the allegations made against him and that he had never been “in trouble” with the guards before.

The man said he was embarrassed as none of his family had ever had dealings with gardaí before and that he had told no one in his family of his dealings with the complainant.

Asked by Mr Greene as to his feeling while being questioned by gardaí, the man replied: “I had this sort of shield around me, I didn’t want to be there”.

The man said he continued to deny being at the woman’s home even when confronted with forensic evidence by gardaí because he was “afraid”.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and a jury.