Doctor confirms abrasions on alleged rape victim

A doctor has told a rape trial that she examined the complainant in a sexual assault unit in the local hospital and found red marks and abrasions on the teenager’s neck consistent with having being held down.

Doctor Patricia Devlin also told the Central Criminal Court jury that she found blood in the teenager’s cervix and red and tenderness in her vaginal area, which she said were all consistent with either “violent or exuberant sexual activity”.

She agreed with Mr John O’Kelly SC, defending, that she checked the complainant’s arms, legs, fingers and general body for “defensive injuries” but did not find any.

“But sometimes alleged victims give in,” the doctor said to which Mr O’Kelly replied; “Yes but in this case the complainant gave evidence of having kicked and struggled”.

She also accepted that the blood found in the complainant’s cervix could be attributed to irregular periods and said she found no vaginal lacerations.

Dr Devlin accepted a suggestion from Mr Justice Barry White that it would be fair to summarise her conclusions “as neutral in that they could be consistent with rape or exuberant sexual activity”.

The witness was giving evidence in the trial of a 20-year-old man accused of raping his then 16-year-old ex-partner at her Waterford home on January 2, 2009.

Garda Grainne Duffy told Mr Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting, that after the accused was arrested and cautioned he replied: “It’s about the complainant”.

When asked by gardaí later in interview why the complainant would claim he raped her, the accused replied: “It’s a load of bulls**t, a pack of lies. She’s a stalker.”

He later told gardaí in interview that he called to the complainant’s house that night after she phoned and asked him to visit.

He said they started kissing and hugging in the sitting room while they were watching a DVD before she asked him if he wanted to go upstairs. She took their baby from his buggy and brought him upstairs while the accused said he carried his blankets and teddy.

They went to her room, she put the baby in the cot and told the accused to lie on the bed. They started kissing again before the accused said the complainant undressed and he undressed. They then had sex.

When asked by gardaí if the complainant ever asked him to stop, he replied “No”.

He denied that he forced himself on her.

When asked if the complainant loved him, the accused replied “Yes” and told the gardaí he did not love her.

He said before he left the complainant’s home that night she asked him if they would get back together and he had told her: “I don’t think so”.

He said at 1.30am that night after he had gone home he got a text from the complainant which read: “What you did to me tonight was like rape.”

The accused told gardaí he did not reply to the text because he had no credit.

He said the complainant had previously told him that “she would do me for rape”.

The accused told gardaí that the complainant had said that she had been raped twice before.

The complainant’s friend told Mr Michael Delaney SC (with Mr McGrath), prosecuting, that she went down to the complainant’s home after the girl rang her, where her friend then told her that the accused had “tried to force sex on her”.

She said the complainant told her that the accused had held her arms back and she also told her that the couple’s baby had been crying at the time.

The witness said her friend told her that her mother had been in the kitchen when the accused called to the house that night but she later left.

She agreed with Mr O’Kelly that her friend had not mentioned “anything about sex” when she phoned her that night.

She said that her friend had told her that the accused had ripped open her nightgown and their child was “roaring”.

She agreed with Mr O’Kelly that the impression that she got was that “nothing really serious had happened” and accepted a suggestion that she “got the impression that the incident was just another eruption” that regularly occurred in the couple’s relationship.

She further agreed that the complainant would get jealous sometimes if she played the Xbox with the accused. She said she wouldn’t sulk but she “would know”.

The witness agreed that her friend would get jealous if she saw the accused talking to a “young one” and when asked by counsel if the complainant was very possessive, the witness replied: “Kinda, yeah.”

She told Mr O’Kelly that the complainant was at a house party with her the night after the alleged rape wearing the accused’s hoodie.

When asked by counsel if she was surprised to see her wearing the top, the witness replied: “Kind of”.

The witness told Mr Delaney in re-examination that she did not remember an occasion when her friend threatened the accused.

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