Alleged victim made rape threat before incident, claims accused
A man accused of raping his ex-girlfriend has told a jury that the complainant attacked him two days before the alleged assault and said she was going "to get me charged with rape and threatening to kill my child".
The 19-year-old man told his defence counsel Mr John Aylmer SC (with Ms Sandra Frayne BL), that he had been out with his then-girlfriend when his mother called him and said the child had been taken to hospital.
When he arrived there the complainant called him a "scumbag this and a scumbag that" and told him he "didn't give a bollix" about his child and was more interested in his "new bird".
He claimed she then attacked him, grabbed his face and kicked him in between the legs.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to counts of raping the woman and burglary with a knife on dates in April and May 2008.
The accused said he received a text message from her the following day saying again that she was going to get him charged with rape and threatening to kill the child.
He told Mr Alymer that he was given 200 hours community service after he pleaded guilty to assaulting the complainant some time ago.
He said the couple first started going out when he was 15 and she was 17 and accepted that their relationship was "not perfect".
He said they were not together when she told him one night that she was pregnant. He said he had been over the moon and delighted to be a father and the relationship started up again.
The accused told Mr Alymer that he started working and doing a course but the complainant wanted him to give up his job.
"She wanted me to give up my career and be a waster to stay with her but I chose my career so I could provide for my child and I left her," the teenager said. He said he started going out with his new girlfriend in March 2008.
The accused told Mr Alymer that he never raped the complainant.
He said that he had called to her home on April 29 to talk to her about their sick child and they started to fight. He could see foam coming for her mouth so he assumed she was on tablets and he "took it upon myself" to take their child from the house.
He was getting the child's clothes when she came into the room carrying a knife.
The accused told Mr Aylmer that he did not have sex with the complainant at any time that day.
He was later arrested by gardaí and denied the allegations that were put to him. He said he urged the gardaí to take his DNA so he could prove his innocence.
The accused told the jury that he called to the complainant's home again on May 15 because he wanted to see his child.
He said he was crying outside and promising her that he would not hit her. He was upset because there were rumours that he was not the child's father.
She let him into the house and they stated talking. He asked her how she could make up the allegations about him.
"I asked her why she did that to me. I am not a rapist. How could someone do something so hateful," the accused told Mr Aylmer. He said they then started talking about how things had ended up like that between them.
"We were getting on better than ever," he said. They started kissing for a while. The child woke up. She fed the baby and later they got into bed together and had consensual sex.
He said they lay in bed together for a while but later, in the sitting room, the conversation turned to his current girlfriend. They had a "little row" and he left but she agreed to bring the child to meet him in the park the next day.
The accused said that he went to his cousin's home but had to leave and he was on his way back to her house when the gardaí arrested him.
He agreed that he had taken cocaine on April 29 and that analysis of his blood sample that day found traces of the drug in his system. He claimed that he could not get an erection after taking cocaine.
The accused told Mr Alymer that he never threatened to kill his child or to burn down the complainant's home as she had earlier claimed.
He said he had hidden from the gardai when they came to his home to arrest him the morning after the first alleged rape because he thought he was going to be charged with assaulting her.
Ms Caroline Hughes, a forensic scientist and defence witness told Mr Aylmer that she could not find the accused's DNA in a semen sample that was taken from the complainant's body.
She agreed with Mr Justice Barry White that she "could not rule out" that it was the accused's semen just that his DNA was not in the sample.
She further agreed that she could not conclude that there had been no sexual activity between the accused and the complainant on the alleged dates.
The trial continues before Mr Justice White and a jury of four men and eight women.
