A woman who claimed a school principal repeatedly raped her in his car has denied in the High Court that it was not physically possible for the six foot two inch man to climb over from the driver's to passenger seat to rape her as she alleged.
Put to her under cross-examination that as a then 16-year-old who had previously received help from the mental health services over bullying at school, and she would have known how to reach out for help if she was being raped, she said she was too scared to do so.
The woman is suing the man, who was a school principal of another school near to the one she attended, claiming he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her during 2009 and 2010 when she took lifts from him to get to the school some 14 miles from her home. She claims he threatened to hurt and to kill her if she told anyone of the assaults.
The man strongly denies the claims and says while he gave her lifts, the assaults she alleges never happened.
The DPP decided in August 2012 there should be no prosecution against him following a garda investigation into her claims.
Under cross-examination by Conall MacCarthy BL, for the man, she disagreed that if the assaults took place as alleged, including the taking of detours to back roads, she would have been considerably later arriving at her own school than the 9.10am or 9.15am she had claimed.
She said the assaults initially involved having to rub his penis as he drove before later involving stopping along quiet country roads to make her perform oral sex and later still for him to carry out his rapes.
She said the roll-call teacher in her school never raised an issue about her being late as it was known she was dependent on a lift from the other school's principal to get there.
Counsel asked her if it was not "utter nonsense" to suggest the principal of a school with hundreds of pupils could turn up just before lessons were to begin, based on the times she gave. She replied: "I don't know how I can answer that, I can't say what time someone should show up for work".
Counsel asked why, as a girl who had already received help from the mental health services for bullying in school, she did not ask for help over the assaults.
She said she thought there was a big difference between bullying and being assaulted in the way she was. She also repeatedly said she was scared to say anything because of the threats he made about what would happen if she did.
Counsel put it to her that her claim that she did not know what a condom was when she was told to take it out of the glove box on the day of the first rape was simply not true as she was by then 17 and had received sex education at school.
She said her school sex education was in relation to "puberty, hormones and women's cycles". It was true she had never seen a condom before, she said,"I was an innocent child".
Counsel said her claim that he climbed over from the driver's seat, reclined the passenger seat she was in and then got on top of her to rape her was not possible for a six-foot two-inch man in a relatively small car. "It is possible because it happened", she said.
Asked would there not have been signs of physical or emotional injury when she arrived at school so soon after the rapes, she said the signs were not on any part of her body that was visible. If she appeared emotional afterwards, she would not say why if she was asked because she was too scared to say anything, she said.
Counsel said he had to suggest the reason there were no signs after the first alleged rape was because the assault never happened. "It did happen", she said.
She had told the court that on a number of occisions he put his belt around her neck and the headrest while raping her. Counsel asked if this all happened in public places. She said she would not call them public, they were secluded places.
The case continues before Mr Justice Tony O’Connor.
