Waterford teenager renewed relationship with accused, ten months after rape allegations

A Waterford teenager has told a jury that she got back with her ex-boyfriend ten months after she claimed he raped her but denied that the renewed relationship was sexual.

The complainant admitted that she attended a friend’s birthday party the night after the alleged incident but denied that she wore the accused’s hoodie to the gathering and further denied that she had spoken “amorously” about him with her friends.

The 20-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one charge of sexual assault and one charge of rape at the complainant’s home on January 2, 2009.

Earlier the 19-year-old complainant told Mr Michael Delaney SC (with Mr Patrick McGrath BL), prosecuting, that she and the accused first got together in 2007 and they had a child together.

She said the relationship deteriorated a number of months after the birth of the baby but the accused continued to have access to him.

She said he called to the house the night of the alleged rape to see the child.

The complainant said they were in the sitting room together with the baby in the buggy, when the child stated to cry. She got up to tend to him but the accused pushed her back onto the couch.

She tried to get up but the accused had his body pressed against her and held her hands against her shoulder.

“I told him to get off me, the child is crying and he needs me but he said ‘the child is fine’,” the complainant told the jury.

She said she tried to break free and started kicking but the accused opened her dressing gown and pulled down her pyjamas bottoms and underwear to her ankles.

“I told him to stop but he said ‘it’s only fun’,” the complainant said.

She said the baby continued to cry and the accused pulled down his own bottoms before he then tried to violate here with his hand.

The complainant said the accused then turned her around, so her back was facing him and put his arms around her front and brought her upstairs.

She said while en-route upstairs the accused stumbled and she tried to get away but failed to do so.

“He brought me into my bedroom and I ran for the window to see if there was anyone there. He grabbed me and threw me onto the bed. He started kissing my neck. I was lying on my back on the bed and then he forced himself on me. He forced sex on me,” the complainant said.

When asked by Mr Delaney if she wanted this to happen, the complainant replied, “No”.

She said the accused said if she told anyone he would kill her.

The accused went downstairs and in to see the baby before he left. She got dressed and ran straight into the child, who was still crying.

She told her parents the next day and her father brought her to the garda station.

The complainant accepted a suggestion from Mr John O’Kelly SC, defending, that she and the accused got back into a relationship in November 2009 and she was still with him when he was charged with raping her in March 2010 and when he was sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court the following April.

The complainant denied that this renewed relationship was sexual and did not accept that she had sex with him on at least four occasions.

She also denied that she had sent the accused a number of text messages in April and May 2010.

Mr O’Kelly read a number of the text messages that she allegedly sent the accused which referred to their child by name and begged the accused to “keep their family together”.

The messages also included phrases such as “I really need you to know that I love you so much” and “I never loved anyone as much as I love you”.

The complainant continued to deny she sent the messages and added “that’s not my number”.

She refused to accept that she wore the accused’s hoodie to a house party the night after the alleged incident and that she had spoken “amorously” of him there.

She told Mr Kelly that if any witnesses had told gardaí that this had happened then they were lying.

The complainant did not accept a suggestion from Mr O’Kelly that her mother told the accused’s mother in October 2008 that they would have the accused “done for rape”, when the woman called to try and resolve a dispute the couple had had the previous night.

She rejected a suggestion that she and the accused “made love” the night of the alleged incident “in an attempt to rekindle your relationship” and that there was “no way” she was raped by the accused him.

The complainant didn’t accept that the “source of the allegation” came about when she asked the accused, after they had consensual sex, if he thought they could get back together and he replied; “I don’t think so”.

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