A student has told a jury at the Central Criminal Court that she was raped during a party in Dublin. A 25-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to raping and sexually assaulting the woman on June 7th, 1997.
The woman said she lay down fully-clothed on a bed to rest and was woken by the defendant having sexual intercourse with her. Her briefs and tights had been removed. She pushed him off, found her briefs and tights and went downstairs, where she became distressed.
She told a male friend: "I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it. I have been raped by a fellow."
She and her friend went back upstairs and found the defendant sleeping. She shook him, asking: "Who do you think you are? Why did you do that to me?" but got no reaction. While she was in the kitchen with a woman friend, the man came down and she said: "That's the f...... prick who raped me". Her friend said loudly they should go to the gardai.
The man replied: "Believe me, I'm as upset about this as you are."
Cross-examined by Mr Barry White SC, she said she would not contest her woman friend's description of her talking animatedly with the defendant in a pub before the party but she disagreed that onlookers would believe she was "getting on very well with him". She did not accept she danced with the defendant at the party. A group of them danced together but not in couples. She would reject any evidence suggesting she danced "provocatively and flirtatiously" with him.
Pressed by Mr White as to how someone could remove her clothing without her waking, the woman replied: "With extreme stealth." Mr White also asked how the accused man could have performed sex as she slept. "In an underhand and sneaky way," she said.
When she was examined, she told the doctor she was on the pill and the doctor found no signs of injury. The trial before Mr Justice Carney continues.