Accused denies rape at Criminal Court
A jury at the Central Criminal Court has been told that a Lithuanian national who appeared to be "in a drunken stupor" told gardaí sent to Cork city suburban house: "I didn't rape anyone".
The jury also heard the eastern European woman who alleges she was raped claim that the accused told her he did it because he liked to see her "scream and struggle".
The 35-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to raping her on January 16, 2005.
Garda Bernadette O'Leary told prosecuting counsel, Mr Paul Coffey SC (with Ms Monika Leech BL), she received two telephone calls from the house within minutes of each other that morning.
The complainant called first at 7.44 a.m asking for garda assistance because she claimed a man was refusing to leave the house. Shortly after she directed a patrol car to go to the address, a second call came from a foreign male alleging that a woman had been raped in the house.
Garda John O'Sullivan said the complainant was "crying, upset, excitable and talking loud" when she told him she had been raped, while pointing towards a room in which he saw the accused lying fully clothed on a bed.
The accused seemed to be "in a drunken stupor" and a second man in the room was "very drunk".
Gda O'Sullivan told Mr Coffey and he noticed the complainant's lip was cut and her right arm was red. She said the accused had put a corkscrew to her neck while telling her "not to call the police".
He arrested the accused on suspicion of having committed a rape and noticed he had a fresh cut on his right cheek. The accused told him: "I didn't rape anyone."
Gda O'Sullivan agreed with Mr Tim O'Connor BL (with Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC), defending, that the accused was "docile and no trouble" and seemed surprised at having been arrested. His attitude was along the lines of "what's the problem?" and that he hadn't raped anyone.
Garda Michelle Saunders told Mr Coffey the complainant was "very disturbed" when she met her at the house. Her upper lip was cut on the inside and she noticed bruising development on the woman's right arm.
Gda Saunders said the woman was also trying to hold her trousers up with her hand because the zip had been broken. The complainant said she had been raped and Gda Saunders took her to hospital where a clinical examination was carried out.
Earlier, the complainant, in her continued cross-examination by Mr O'Carroll, said that when she asked the accused why he did it, he replied it was because he liked to see her "scream and struggle".
She agreed with Mr O'Carroll she had been drinking in Cork city during the day before the party at which she drank vodka and 'Red Bull'. She was drunk when she went to bed around 3 a.m. She denied she was "very drunk" because she didn't get very drunk and had also been eating and dancing.
She agreed also that the accused said something like he had no memory of doing anything wrong and that if he did he was sorry. "But, sorry does not (NOT) make a rape go away," she told counsel.
She said that during the alleged rape she was screaming in both Russian and English because she didn't know what language the accused spoke.
She denied an assertion by Mr O'Carroll that she was "moving the chairs around on the Titanic" by changing her evidence concerning the alleged event and had said at a previous hearing that at first she didn't recognise the man having sex with her.
"It was dark in the room but it wasn't pitch dark. I thought it was the Lithuanian man but I wasn't 100% sure until the light was turned on," she said.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins and a jury of seven men and five women.
