Rape accused 'was threatened', court hears
A Wexford man charged with raping a 14-year-old baby-sitter in his sister's home was threatened with being "knee-capped" unless he pleaded guilty and has been subjected to silent phonecalls.
The 30-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping and sexually assaulting the teenager in a Wexford town on November 25, 2006.
The alleged victim agreed with defence counsel, Mr John O'Kelly SC (with Mr Colman Cody BL), she was aware that as a result of her allegation the accused had been beaten up by her father and another of her male relatives.
She also agreed she was aware he received threats that he would be "knee-capped" unless he pleaded guilty but she denied she knew who was making what counsel called "silent phonecalls" recently to him.
The teenager told prosecuting counsel, Mr Thomas Creed SC (with Mr Sean Gillane BL), that she had baby-sat previously in the house a number of times.
The children were in bed when she arrived at about 8.30pm and after the parents left she was watching television. She said the accused arrived at about 10pm and asked her what age she was.
She told him she was 14 and he said that they could both have "a bit of fun".
She told Mr Creed she replied "No" but said he began kissing her and fondling her body outside her tracksuit as well as putting his hand down the front of her trousers.
She said he went outside to smoke when her phone rang but returned shortly afterwards, knelt down in front of her and tried to pull down her trousers. She tried to stop him but he put his fingers into her vagina.
She told Mr Creed the accused then pulled down his trousers and exposed his erect penis. He fondled her again and bit her breasts and then raped her.
She pushed him off her and dressed herself. When he went to the front door to leave he said to her: "This is between the two of us. You're not going to tell anyone?"
The girl told Mr Creed that when the accused left she went to the bathroom and found she was bleeding from the vagina. When the couple returned later, she telephoned her mother to come to collect her. She said nothing to anyone at that time about what she alleges happened.
She told her best friend at school on Monday and on her advice revealed what happened to her mother. Her father went to the gardaí to tell them about it.
She rejected a suggestion by Mr O'Kelly, in cross-examination, that she never received a phonecall. Mr O'Kelly said that phone records obtained by the defence showed she wasn't called by the person she named.
Mr O'Kelly suggested that the accused had kissed her but did nothing else and asked her to let him out of the house and that he returned later to apologise to her because he was ashamed of his actions.
She denied that her claims about being raped amounted "to sexual fantasy" and that, having made what counsel called "exaggerated claims", she couldn't pull back because her family "was at high-doh".
A local woman told Mr Creed she telephoned the complainant about 10pm looking for the girl's mother.
She told Mr O'Kelly, in cross-examination, that she didn't want to see the phone records for hers and the complainant's phone when counsel told her they showed she hadn't called the teenager on that night.
Mr O'Kelly told her he was going to show her the records notwithstanding her declaration and then brought her through all her calls for that day. She agreed they didn't show a call to the complainant.
A schoolfriend of the complainant said she was crying and appeared very upset on Monday and told her she had been raped on Saturday night. She advised the complainant to tell her mother.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of four women and eight men.
