One of two men accused of rape tells court woman 'felt betrayed I went back to party'
One of two men accused of raping a woman after she “blacked out” at a party told gardaí that he believes the woman felt betrayed by him because he went back to the party after they had consensual sex.
The prosecution case is that on two occasions during the night the woman came-to in a bedroom to find the defendants raping her. The two Leitrim men have pleaded not guilty to rape in a flat in a town in the county on a date in 2017.
The second accused also denies a charge of oral rape of the woman. The defendants and the complainant are now aged in their 20s and knew one another from school.
The jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard that the first defendant had moved into the flat a few weeks earlier and that he later texted friends on Snapchat that he had “christened” the flat.
He told gardaí that earlier in the night he and others were at a birthday party in a local pub and the woman was flirting with him. He said she was touching his leg under the table and asking him if he had condoms and asked him “when are you going to fuck me?”.
He said during a later party in the flat he and the woman went into his bedroom and were kissing and had consensual sex. He said she was running her nails on his back and asked him to put her hands around his throat. He said he didn't want to but he did but said he didn't find it exciting.
“I'm not into that stuff,” he said. He said everything they did was consensual and the woman never told him to stop.
He said the woman told him she loved him. He said he was in the bedroom for nearly an hour and then left and went back to the party.
He said the woman was awake and asked him not to go. He said his contact lenses were dry and he had to leave the room to address this.
He said when he went to the kitchen there was then “a bit of jeering” from the other men. He said when the second accused later came back from the bedroom and said he got a “blowjob off her” he was surprised.
He next saw the woman when she rang him from the front gate of the apartment block because she was locked in. He said she told him “open the gate or I'm ringing the guards”.
He said she did seem annoyed but he thought it was to do with “the slagging”. He denied raping the woman, saying “I don't understand this. I've been set up.
We were both enjoying ourselves. I've a good name around the town. I'm respectful towards woman. The whole night I treated her with respect.
Gardaí put it to him that the complainant was too intoxicated to consent and he knew this and took advantage of her. He said she said that she felt betrayed by him.
“She feels betrayed because I left the room and went into the kitchen,” he said. He said the complainant was fully alert and “well capable of carrying herself”.
The trial, which began last week, continues before Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury. None of the parties can be named during the trial.
