Man acquitted of raping 18-year-old girl when he was a teenager
A man has been acquitted of raping a 18-year-old girl in a Dublin city park when he was a teenager three years ago.
The five-day trial at the Central Criminal Court heard that the defendant and the complainant met in October 2016 when he was aged 16 and she was 18. They began a relationship the next month and had consensual sex a number of times from December to January 2017.
A legal issue arose during the woman's testimony and Justice Tara Burns had to inform the woman that it is an offence to have sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 17 and that she had a right not to say anything in evidence that might incriminate her.
A Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) doctor gave evidence that while taking a medical history from the complainant, she told him that she had never previously had sex with the defendant.
She also told him that they had kissed that night before the teenager raped her. In her evidence during the trial the woman told the jury that they had not kissed that evening.
The complainant said that she met the man, then aged 17, in a local park at around teatime and they were sitting on a bench and talking. They began arguing and the accused grabbed her and dragged her around the bench and held her down before raping her.
The jury heard that after the alleged rape, the defendant texted a friend of the complainant and said to her “can you get her to not go to the guards?” and said “he had €400 to give her not to go to the gardaí”.
During cross-examination, Shane Costello SC, defending, put it to the complainant that she had fallen out with the defendant in the weeks before the alleged rape and she wanted to get back into a relationship with him.
He put it to her that they had consensual sex in the park but that they then had a row when the defendant saw her reading a text message from another boy.
Mr Costello said that after this row his client walked off. He put it to the complainant that she was left devastated by this turn of events. The complainant said this version of events was untrue.
The jury heard that on the night of the incident the defendant rang a friend of the complainant and told her “I rode [complainant's first name] and left her in the park” before he hung up.
A friend of the complainant testified that the complainant had told her on the night of the incident that the other boy “had been really off with her” because the defendant had also texted this boy to say he had sex with the girl.
In texts to another friend, the complainant said that the defendant had “basically raped me” but asked her not to tell anyone.
The accused had denied rape in a park in Dublin city on a date in February 2017. After a little under two hours, a jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
Text messages from Snapchat and Facebook messenger were disclosed to the defence as a normal part of the trial process and many of these were put to the complainant in cross-examination.
In texts sent after the alleged rape a female friend told the defendant he was just using the complainant “to get your hole”.
He replied to her: “She could have stopped me if she wanted to. She's only trying to make me look bad because I made a show of her”.
This witness told the accused “Youse are acting childish, yous either like each other or you don't” and told him, “if you like her, be honest and treat her with respect”.
She agreed with Mr Costello that these texts showed she was concerned about giving out to him for treating her friend poorly and using her for sex but not about a rape allegation.
