Cork man accused of raping teenager

A Cork man has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court accused of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of raping the girl on dates between February 29 and September 4, 2004 at two addresses in Cork.

He has also pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexually assaulting the girl on dates between February 14 and December 1, 2004 at two addresses in Cork and in a car.

The now 21-year-old complainant told Ms Mary Rose Gearty SC, prosecuting, that she woke up one night to find the man in the bed beside her.

“I woke up and he had my pyjama bottoms pulled down and his hand was between my legs,” she told Ms Gearty.

“He was feeling my chest for a good while and then when he stopped I got up and went to the bathroom and tried to clean myself between my legs,” she said.

She said the night before her Junior Certificate she woke up and saw the accused on the floor on all fours with his hand underneath the blanket between her legs.

“He took off my pyjamas and I was on my back when he got on top of me and pushed my pants down. He then forced himself on me,” she said. She said the accused then penetrated her.

She said the incident “went on for ages” and that she did not remember him leaving the bedroom.

She said on the night of a friend’s birthday, the accused raped her again in his bedroom.

“When I came out of the bathroom he told me to go into his bedroom and he got on top of me on the bed and raped me again,” she told Ms Gearty.

She said she did not tell anyone about the incidents as she “was too afraid as he told me no-one would believe me.”

Under cross-examination by Mr Tim O’Leary SC, defending, the complainant said she did not know why she did not get out of the bed immediately when he assaulted her for the first time.

She also agreed with Mr O’Leary that she did not “call out or tell him to stop” when he raped her.

She agreed that she “did not shout out” when he raped her in his bedroom after she got ready for a friend’s birthday, even though her sister and another friend were downstairs.

“It didn’t cross my mind to shout out,” she said.

She said she “doesn’t remember” if she had a “normal conversation” with her sister and her friend after the alleged rape.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of six men and six women.