Examination of Louth pensioner backs up rape claim, doctor tells court

A doctor who examined a 71-year-old woman the day she alleges her nephew raped her, has told a jury that injuries to the woman’s genital area are consistent with a sexual assault.

The 51-year-old accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the now 73-year-old woman, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts of rape, one of anal rape, sexual assault and sexual assault while armed with a knife in her County Louth home on March 13, 2011.

Doctor Gouri Columb told Michael Delaney SC, prosecuting, that she was working in the sexual assault treatment unit in the Rotunda hospital on March 13 and examined the woman at 4.15pm.

She said she discovered a red spot on the right side of the woman’s neck, a light blue bruise on her upper right arm, a light blue bruise under her knee joint and a red bruise on her left knee.

The doctor said she then examined the woman’s genitalia and found purple and red discolouration all over her labia. There were cuts to the opening of the vagina and there was oozing from the abrasion.

She also discovered a deep blue bruise on the woman’s vagina and redness around her anal area.

Dr Columb confirmed there was no internal injuries in either the woman’s vagina or anus.

She took various swabs, skin and hair samples which she handed over to the gardaí.

Dr Columb told Mr Delaney that when she first met the woman she was upset, very shaky and trembling.

She said she concluded that the woman’s injuries were consistent with her allegation of sexual assault.

Dr Columb agreed with Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, that the woman gave her an account of the alleged rape and told her that her nephew had taken off her underwear.

Counsel told the doctor that the woman had testified that she had not been wearing underwear under her slip and trousers that morning.

He said she had also claimed that she had never told the doctor her nephew had removed her underwear.

“I would not have written it down unless she said it,” Dr Columb replied.

She agreed that the redness she discovered around the woman’s anal area was “non-specific” and said it could have occurred from the assault or something else.

The doctor agreed with Mr Dwyer that if a person claims they were forcibly anally raped for at least half an hour, you would expect to find injuries around the anus and accepted a suggestion that “your findings would not support that the woman had been anally raped for 30 minutes”.

She confirmed that an older person is more likely to bruise easily and that the woman had no injuries to her scalp or head.

The woman had earlier testified that her nephew had taken her by the hair from the sitting room into her bedroom where he continued to rape her.

The doctor confirmed in re-examination from Mr Delaney that “any bruising” in the genital area is significant and said her findings were “really consistent with a vaginal assault”.

The trial continued in legal argument for the afternoon before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and in the absence of the jury of six men and six women.