A Co Meath man has told a Central Criminal Court jury his former girlfriend had sex with him at least 10 times after she alleged he had raped her. He said they met in secret after she made the rape allegation and they had sex about 90 per cent of the time.
The accused also said that after he had sex with her on the night of the alleged rape, he kept her trousers as proof that she was "doing the dirt" on her current boyfriend. He said he did this after she threatened to tell her brother that they had sex beside her house that night. He also told a jury he and his former girlfriend had sometimes "raised their hands" to each other but denied he had been violent towards her on the night of the alleged rape.
It was the third day of the trial of the 21-year-old man who denies raping and sexually assaulting the woman on September 7th, 1997.
Cross-examined by prosecuting counsel Mr Patrick McCarthy SC, the accused denied that 14 bruise marks found on his former girlfriend's body after the alleged rape were a result of his attempts to pin her down. He also denied she had shouted: "Rape!" four or five times or that he had removed her clothes forcefully. He agreed that love letters sent to him by the alleged victim did not indicate that she was a cunning or vindictive woman.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice O'Sullivan and a jury.