Man denies raping woman in Clare hotel
A south Dublin man has denied in evidence to a Central Criminal Court jury that he raped a woman who claimed she thought she was having sexual intercourse in a Clare hotel with a man she fancied.
"If that girl had said stop I would have stopped. If she said "no" I would have stopped," he said.
He told the jury he got into one of the beds in the room he had occupied for some days with his partner at a wedding party and didn’t see anyone in the second bed or that the two beds had been pushed together.
He said, in reply to defence counsel, Mr Padraig Dwyer BL, he then found he was kissing a woman who was kissing him back and they had consensual sex. He didn’t know who the woman was and didn’t ask her name or tell her his name. It was day-six of the trial.
It was day-six of the trial of the 40-year-old man who has pleaded not guilty to a charge that on March 30, 2003, in a hotel bedroom in Co Clare, he raped the now 31-year-old woman who thought she was having sexual intercourse with another man.
He agreed with prosecuting counsel, Ms Deirdre Murphy SC (with Ms Pauline Walley BL), that after his partner had left for home following the wedding he had offered his room to another man who had become friendly with this woman. This man had been sharing a room with another man.
The accused told Ms Murphy that this other man "didn’t seem pushed one way or the other" by his offer and he therefore didn’t know what the arrangements were. He found the room door ajar when a drinking party finished up in the early hours of the morning and went in without putting on lights.
He agreed with Ms Murphy it was dark in the room and said he didn’t know where the light switches were because he came to the room rather late every night.
He accepted he knew there were only four women in the apartment, three who had been there from the start and the complainant who had moved from another hotel to be with the man to whom he offered the room, but he hadn’t thought of asking any of them if they wanted to have sex with him.
Pressed by Ms Murphy, he denied he knew he was having sexual intercourse with the complainant and agreed he didn’t introduce himself to the woman in the bed. They kissed further after sex.
The accused also denied the woman’s claim that he asked her during the sexual activity if she knew who he was and he did not hear her saying this to her man friend after the event.
He agreed the woman became a little bit annoyed and complained she was "full of cum" and that when she and her man friend left the room they were going to get the gardaí. He added he was in shock at this development.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Barry White.
