One of the two men charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a van claimed to a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury that everything that happened was with her consent.
Giving evidence in his defence, the 39-year-old married man said in reply to his counsel, Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, that his statement to gardai on what happened was correct.
But he added: "I'm sorry this happened. I did it with consent. I'm sorry it happened to her and sorry for my family."
Two men have denied sexually assaulting the woman, falsely imprisoning her and assaulting her causing actual bodily harm at an unknown place in Dublin on July 12th, 1997.
Cross-examined by prosecuting counsel, Mr Michael O'Higgins, the accused man denied that the reason he could not remember the woman's name was that he and his friend "brutalised and dehumanised her".
He said the reason he apologised was because he was a married man. He and a friend had offered to drop two women home after a night out. They left one girl in Ballsbridge and continued towards Dun Laoghaire where the other said she lived.
He said they stopped the car near her apartment, and the woman started kissing him. She then told him she did not live at the apartment and in fact was not sure where she lived.
The accused man told Mr O'Higgins they got back into the car and after driving a little further intimacy took place. They kissed two or three times and he reached inside her clothes and touched her breasts. He denied biting her left breast, as she had claimed.
He said the alleged victim then pulled her trousers and knickers "right off" and he felt her legs. At the same time his friend was touching her. No further intimacy took place.
The trial continues before Judge Dominic Lynch and a jury.