Alleged rape victim was diagnosed with STI, court hears

A Roscommon doctor has revealed she found sexually transmitted genital warts on a 13-year-old girl who subsequently accused her father’s employee of anal rape.

The doctor told Mr Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, at the Central Criminal Court, that the warts around the girl’s anus could only have appeared after direct contact with a penis since this type of infection is rarely transmitted by any other contact.

The doctor told Mr Condon that she advised the girl to attend hospital for further examination to confirm diagnosis and to check for more sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as there is a high risk of others being present if one is detected in the body.

The doctor concluded that the alleged rape must have been severe enough to have caused bleeding and micro tears which probably transmitted the wart virus.

The accused (aged 34), who can not be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to one count of anally raping the then 13-year-old girl in a storage facility at the back of her father’s business on a date between August 16 and October 1, 2008.

The doctor agreed with Mr Martin Giblin SC, defending, that the girl told her the man responsible brought up the alleged rape in conversation each time her father was out of earshot.

Mr Giblin asked the doctor if “vigorous” friction would have caused the micro tears.

The doctor replied that the friction did not have to be vigorous, but could have been persistent to cause tears.

She added that the tears may have happened over a few minutes without need for ejaculation because the infection is passed through skin to skin contact.

Another doctor told Mr Condon that she took a blood sample and examined the accused man for genital warts but found no signs of infection.

She added that not every infected person has the appearance of warts.

A garda sergeant told Mr Condon that he seized part of the man’s work uniform from his home the morning he was arrested.

The sergeant agreed with Mr Giblin that his client consented to a doctor’s exam in custody and allowed gardaí access to his medical records.

The accused man denied raping the girl in his interviews, read out by Mr Condon, saying he did not know why she would make such allegations.

He agreed the complainant was a “playful, innocent young girl” who wouldn’t have seen danger and who was “very trusting”.

He denied bringing her into a store room behind her father’s office and moving her out of view of a window while raping her.

He denied he ever had genital warts and granted gardaí permission to access his medical records.

He listed CCTV locations in and around the business saying he thought the cameras would “pretty much pick up everything”.

The man said he did not try to contact the girl’s mother after her confrontations with him because he was shocked by the accusations.

He said he had thought he and his boss would be able to sit and talk about the matter when he turned up for work the following day but the girl’s father had met him with such aggression he thought he would be hit.

He mentioned that a past employee in the business had said the complainant seemed “infatuated” with him but denied she had ever tried to flirt with him.

He denied he ever had genital warts or that he was on any medication.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of six women and six men.