A man accused of raping a woman he met through an online dating app has told a Central Criminal Court jury that he thought the sex was consensual.
The man (30) told his counsel, Blaise O’Carroll SC, that he and the complainant matched on Badoo and that it was “quickly clear” they were both on the same wavelength about meeting for sex.
He said he received a text from her about bringing a condom while he was driving to her house but he told her he did not have one when he arrived. He said she “seemed disappointed” about this but there was “no negative response” from her when they began sexual activity.
He described how she “seemed quite into it and quite happy” and that he had stopped when she asked him not to use his fingers on her. He told Mr O’Carroll that he did not think he was ever having sex with her without her consent. He added that she gave him no indication she was on medication.
The complainant has alleged that the accused raped her after turning up at her house and that he stole her phone on his way out.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman at her home in Dublin on August 14th, 2015.
He confirmed to Mr O’Carroll that he has no previous convictions and has never been in trouble with the law.
Conor Devally SC, prosecuting, put it to him in cross-examination that the complainant said he had texted her “you don’t have to do anything” before he drove over. The man denied this.
‘Already started’
He accepted that he told a garda “I know she said no, but we’d already started”, but explained that this was the third thing he had stated on arrest.
He said he thought he was being arrested for stealing the woman’s phone but when the garda implied it was for having sex with her against her will, he then uttered that statement.
The man said he was referring to the woman saying no to finger penetration and performing oral sex on him. He told the jury that he had stopped those acts when she had asked.
He denied that the statement implied he had continued on with something after starting. He further denied when Mr Devally put it to him that he knew not to have sex with the complainant without a condom but that he “took a chance”.
He disagreed that he was happy when she did not say anything and continued on with sex after she had said no.
Mr Devally put it to him that he had accepted during his garda interviews that the woman said no to penetrative sex. The man responded that it was a vigorous “one-sided” interview process and he had been at the garda station for nearly 24 hours.
Pressured
The accused added that he had been told he “raped a girl” even though he said there had been no communication from the complainant about being pressured into sex.
The jury heard last week that gardaí set up a sting operation to meet with a person selling a phone on DoneDeal.ie.
Garda Rossa Smith told the jury that the seller's contact number matched that of the accused from his details in the complainant's WhatsApp contacts list.
Garda Smith explained to Mr O’Carroll that the complainant reinstalled her WhatsApp app when she bought a new phone and the contact list, including the accused’s number, was intact.
The garda said though the contact details remained, the messages between the man and complainant were no longer in existence. The trial has reached its closing stages before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of eight men and four women.