Dublin man convicted of raping former girlfriend
A Dublin man has been convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of the rape and unlawful detention of his former girlfriend.
The accused man has been remanded on bail by Mr Justice Paul Carney for sentencing on January 17, 2003.
The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on one charge of rape, anal rape and false imprisonment of the woman in his city centre flat on September, 18, 1998. The accused had pleaded not guilty.
The jury of six man and six women took two and a half hours deliberations to reach their verdicts on day six of the trial.
The woman told the jury the accused met her after work and was quite drunk and abusive. A colleague tried to help her but the woman went with the accused man to try and calm him down.
She was forced to accompany the accused to his flat. She repeatedly told him she did not want to go but he dragged her by the arm and pulled her by the hair when she tried to walk away.
When they reached the flat he forced the door open. The woman sat by a window in the living room and he asked her to go into the bedroom. She refused but went in when he said he would force her.
She said he picked up a hammer at one stage and was swinging it around which made her feel intimidated.
He asked her to take off her jacket because he wanted to have sex. When she said no, he told her it could either be "the hard way or the easy way." She replied it would have to be the hard way.
He started pulling at the jacket which she removed herself as it belonged to a friend and she did not want it damaged. The accused man was sniffing lighter fluid and the woman said he was "quite out of it". She got up to leave but he pushed her back onto the bed.
He removed her lower garments, digitally penetrated her and then had sexual intercourse with her. She tried to kick him off but was not able. He also turned her over and had anal sex with her.
She said she was struggling and saying "no" while this was going on but he was heavier than her.
She managed to kick him off eventually and got up.
She picked up his runner and started hitting him with it. She also threw a vase through a window.
She said she remembered a phone had rung under the bed so she tried to get the accused to leave the room. When he did she dialed 999 and asked a man who answered to send help to the flat but the accused came in and grabbed the phone from her.
Afterwards, he walked her home. As they were walking along he suggested they return to the flat and "make love". She told what he had done to her was not making love, it was rape.
