Midlands gang rape accused would tell woman 'sorry, try to forgive us'

Four men have pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping a 17-year-old girl on the night of December 27, 2016. Picture: Niall Carson

One of four men on trial for raping a teenager told gardaí two months after the alleged incident that he would tell the complainant now “sorry, try to forgive us”.

The four men have pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the then 17-year-old girl on the night of December 27, 2016. A fifth man is not before the court.

The 17-year-old girl got into a car with the men in the early hours of the morning in a midlands town and it is the prosecution case that the four defendants each sexually assaulted her as the car was driven out of the town.

The car was driven to a remote location nearby and it is alleged that all five men raped her in turn at this location. The car was driven to another location and it is alleged that three of the men falsely imprisoned the girl at this point in the car while one man sexually assaulted her and another raped her.

The four defendants deny all the charges. They were aged between 17 and 19 at the time and cannot be identified under the 1981 Rape Act.

On day 13 of the trial, the jury heard evidence of the arrest and interview of a third defendant, now aged 24. The court heard he was aged 19 when gardaí arrested him at his place of work in March 2017.

He told gardaí that the girl asked for a lift home and then said she wanted to go to party. He said she was having a laugh with them at this point.

He said she moved to the front seat where he was and he was touching her breasts. He initially said she didn't push his hands away but that the men in the back seat were touching her breasts, legs and genital area and she was pushing their hands away and trying to stop them.

“I even told them to stop,” he said, adding that they did “eventually”. He later told gardaí that the girl did try to push his hands off when she was in the front with him.

“She said stop and pulled my hands away. She told us to stop when we were feeling her tits,” he said.

He said when the car arrived at the remote location, she initiated sex with him. He said she had sex with him while the other men were outside the car.

He said after he had sex he got out and the driver got in and had sex with the girl. He said two more men had sex with her but that a fifth accused, who is on trial, didn't, because the men got back into the car and locked him out.

He said that the girl didn't say anything but he believed she was consenting because he said she was grinding on top of him and “kissing me, touching my parts, my knob”.

He said she never pushed him away, never shouted or screaming, saying “she had plenty of chances to get away, she didn't run or anything like that”.

He said the girl was laughing with them about the fact they had locked this man out. He said they drove to another location and the girl had sex with him while giving a “blowjob” to another of the men.

Garda interviewers later put it to the accused that it was hard to believe that “she didn’t mind you riding her” when she had earlier told him to stop feeling her breasts.

He replied “yeah”. It was put to him that all the males in the car “got aroused and horny” and “you all went too far”. He replied yeah.

Asked “if you were out again and a girl got in what would you do?” he replied “we wouldn’t take her in the car”.

Gardaí put it to him “didn’t you know it was wrong?” and he said “yeah we did after, the next day?”.

He added “five lads and one girl and she was young, 17. It wasn’t fair on her.” Asked how he now felt about the complainant he said “I feel bad, sorry” and asked what he would say to her he replied “sorry, try to forgive us”.

He also said “I am really sorry, I thought she wouldn't be like this, she wanted it but now she is going through all this”.

He accepted a submission from gardaí that he and the others “took advantage” of the teenager during her time in the car but did not accept they had raped her.

A detective garda who arrested the accused agreed with Colman Cody, defending, that the defendant was advised he had the right to have a solicitor present but declined to have one.

The garda also agreed that the accused client was advised that he didn’t have to answer any questions but that he did provide answers to the questions put to him. The trial continues before Ms Justice Tara Burns and a jury.

Additional evidence

He was questioned over the course of seven interviews in a 24-hour period. He told gardaí that the girl was out on the road waving the car down but when CCTV footage from the town was later shown to him, he accepted this wasn't the case.

He told gardaí he had lied about this because he was afraid. He denied he was trying to suggest that she was drunk.

He told gardaí that he and some of the other men had met up and discussed what happened and agreed to go to the Garda station “and tell the truth”. He agreed that they decided between them to say the woman “fell out in front of ye”.

He told gardaí that when he was having sex with the girl in the parked car, two of the men were shining lights into the car. He said he thought they were flashlights.

He said when another of the men was having sex with the girl, the driver of the car used his mobile phone to make a video and saved this. He said the first man later told the driver to delete this footage.

The court heard forensic analysis of one of the mobile phones of the man who is not on trial, showed a Snapchat message sent at around 5am on the night. A garda witness said it was not possible to retrieve the contents of the message as they are automatically deleted on receipt.