Woman subjected to 'terrifying ordeal of sexual depravity', court told

A man allegedly abducted a mother and her four-year-old son before putting the woman though “a terrifying ordeal of sexual depravity” a jury has heard.

On the first day of evidence in the trial, the Central Criminal Court heard that the alarm was raised when the child was found wandering alone in the city centre.

The woman had allegedly been held by the accused for 12 hours before gardaí rescued her.

The 53 year old accused has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault, two counts of rape with an make-up pen, attempted vaginal and anal rape, oral rape and aggravated sexual assault between February 12 and 13, 2010 in Dublin.

He also denies child abduction, threats to kill or cause serious harm, false imprisonment, stealing a bank card and stealing cash from two ATMs.

In his opening speech, prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn SC told the jury they will hear evidence that the woman, a Chinese national, was walking home in the afternoon with her son when a man approached her and said he needed help.

It is the prosecution’s case that his man was the accused.

He told the woman that someone in his apartment was sick or injured and convinced her to come back with him to help.

Counsel said that when she realised he had been lying she demanded to be let out and went to make a phone call.

The accused allegedly became violent and seized her phone. He demanded she have sex with him and threatened to kill her son when she protested, Mr McGinn told the jury.

He then left the mother in a bedroom and took the child upstairs. Counsel said he returned to the woman, tied her up and “over the next few hours subjected her to a sexual ordeal”.

“She was subjected to a terrifying ordeal of sexual depravity”, Mr McGinn told the jury.

He said that whenever the woman asked where her child was, the accused told her he was asleep or watching television. He later took her bank card and demanded to know the PIN before leaving the apartment for a period.

When he returned he found the woman had tried to break free and broken the bathtub in the process. Counsel said he became angry, beat her and continued to sexually assault her.

Later she pretended to fall asleep until she heard the man leave again. She managed to get free but couldn’t find her son despite searching the apartment.

Counsel said she was locked in but was able to break a window and throw things onto the street in the hope of alerting gardaí.

Mr McGinn said that several hours previously the four-year-old child was found by passers-by alone in the city centre. He was taken to a garda station where a Chinese-speaking garda was able to establish that his mother had been kidnapped.

Gardaí tried to get the child to retrace his steps but he became confused and couldn’t say where they had been taken.

At 5.30am, gardaí were alerted to the noise being caused by the woman from the apartment window before arriving at the scene and freeing her.

The accused was nominated as a suspect and gardaí traced him to a Dublin hotel where he was arrested.

Mr McGinn said there will be evidence that the apartment can be linked to the accused and that there is CCTV of him using the woman’s ATM card.

Counsel added that before his arrest the accused had visited the airport and ferry terminal.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paddy McCarthy and a jury of nine men and three women.