Two women accuse same driver of rape
Two women have today told a trial that they were sexually assaulted in separate incidents by a Louth man who offered them lifts home.
The Central Criminal Court heard evidence that the first alleged victim fell asleep in the accused’s car and awoke to him sexually assaulting her.
He allegedly then dropped her off and picked up a second woman whom he held captive in his car and raped.
Both women gave evidence that they were later able to pick out their attacker’s car in a carpark.
The 27-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to rape, oral rape, attempted rape and false imprisonment of one woman and sexual assault of another on September 16, 2007 in Co Louth.
The first alleged victim gave evidence that she was on a night out and left a nightclub at around two or half two in the morning. She told prosecuting counsel, Ms Caroline Biggs SC, that she was offered a lift home by the accused outside a chipper and accepted it.
She said she "blanked out" as soon as she sat in the passenger seat and awoke about 15 minutes later to find the car parked in a field. She alleged the accused was on top of her with his "privates out" and was trying to pull down her jeans. She said he also had his hand down her jeans touching her genitals.
She told Ms Biggs she started kicking him and said she didn’t "want this" to which he replied: "you were up for it".
He returned to the driver’s seat, said he needed petrol and drove off with her in the passenger seat.
He stopped to get petrol but she said she was too afraid to try escaping. She said he then drove her to her home town, stopped the car and leaned in to kiss her. She said she kissed him back out of fear and agreed to later go to the cinema with him.
She said when he asked her for her phone number, she gave him an old number she didn’t use anymore.
She got out of the car and walked home, later making a complaint to gardaí. She said she was later brought around a carpark by gardaí and was able to pick out her attacker’s car.
The second complainant told Ms Biggs she was on a night out with her boyfriend and left a nightclub at around 3am when it closed. She said she had a row with her boyfriend outside and they both went off in separate directions.
She told Ms Biggs that as she was walking, a car pulled up and the driver offered her a lift which she accepted because she was tired. She said she could sense something wasn’t right and when he asked for her name she gave him a fake one.
She said she got very worried when he started to take the wrong road to her home town and that when he pulled over on a country lane she started panicking and trying to open the passenger door.
She claimed he leaned across and was trying to pull the door closed so she started struggling and kicking the windscreen which cracked. She hit and scratched him, shouting ‘let me out’ until he told her to calm down and said he would take her home.
She said he drove on but then pulled the car in beside a red brick wall, which blocked the passenger door from being opened. She said he jumped over to her side, took off both their trousers and raped her.
"At this point I thought he was going to kill me because why would he not kill me after doing what he was doing," she told Ms Biggs. "I thought this man was capable of anything."
She said she agreed to perform oral sex when asked because, "I thought if I went along with him, he might not kill me."
She said he then tried to anally rape her but gave up, got back in the driver’s seat and said, “"I’m sorry, I’ll drive you home."
She claimed during the drive he asked her if she "enjoyed that" and that she thought he was going to pull over and strangle her. When he dropped her off in her home town he asked her for a hug and said: "I know you didn’t enjoy that."
She said he kept sayin: "You’re going to go to the guards" but that she reassured him that she wasn’t. She left the car and noted his number plate before walking home and telling her partner what happened.
She went to the gardaí that night, made a complaint and later picked out a car in a carpark which she said belonged to her attacker. She said she recognised it by the registration and the cracks in the windscreen.
The woman disagreed with Mr Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, that the accused stopped the car the first time to "relieve himself".
"If that’s the case, then why didn’t he let me out," she replied.
She denied she consented to having sex, saying: "Why would I lie, if I consented why would I be here putting myself through this."
She said claims by the accused that she said she trusted him and was happy to be in his company were “complete lies.”
The trial continues before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and a jury of six men and six women.
