A man has been convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl in a Dublin suburb.
The 41-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment on August 21st, 2017.
The complainant, now aged 19, told the trial that she sneaked out of her home that night after being grounded by her mother. She said she was alone in her local town when the accused approached her. He asked if she needed money and later offered to let her stay at his home.
“He said he didn’t want me to stay out on the street, he wanted to make sure I was OK. He said he would sleep on the couch and I could take his room,” she told the jury. “It was freezing cold and I just wanted to get warm so I gave in and said ‘yeah’.”
The teenager said they walked to the man’s apartment and that he showed her a bedroom where she lay on top of the covers fully clothed and fell asleep.
She said the next thing she remembered was feeling heavy breathing and finding someone on top of her. She said she told the man to stop touching her breasts and tried to push him away, but he did not stop and went on to rape her.
After she left the house, the complainant met a friend who said her family were looking for her and persuaded her to go to a garda station. A garda called her mother, who came to collect her.
Confronted
The complainant later told her brother that she stayed “in some old man’s house” and had been raped. He said his sister directed him and his brother to the house, where they confronted the man. The two brothers gave evidence of hitting the accused man before leaving his home.
The following November, the teenager said she spoke to a teacher about what had happened. She said she was unable to get the words out, so wrote a note saying that she had been raped. Her parents and gardaí were then alerted.
When asked by Mr McGrath why she told her teacher at that point, the teenager replied: “If I had kept it any longer, I’d be in the grave”.
Following three hours and 29 minutes of deliberations the jury returned with unanimous guilty verdicts on the rape and sexual assault charges. They acquitted the man of the false imprisonment charge.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their service and remanded the man in custody for sentencing on November 29th. He ordered the preparation of a victim impact statement and a probation report.