A foreign national who is charged with raping a woman he met at Lillie's Bordello disco in Dublin told her afterwards it was "taboo" in his country for her to leave to go home on her own.
The 31-year-old man has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court where he denies raping the woman in his bedsitter on the morning of May 12th, 1999. The woman told the jury she repeatedly told him over several hours that she wanted to go home to her own residence while he insisted she should stay with him in his place. She said they left the disco at about 2.30 a.m after they had danced for a long time.
Earlier, he had tried to grope her chest while they sat on a stairs there but she had stopped him. He was to drive her to her home near the city centre and, as she was hungry, they stopped at Supermacs in O'Connell Street. She then gave him instructions to her residence but he drove in a different direction.
She told Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, he said he wanted to show her his place. She insisted she wanted to go home but found he was not paying attention to her. When they arrived at his place he got out of the car. She followed and entered the building with him.
The alleged victim described how, in his tiny room, she turned her back to him to face the wall when he started forcibly kissing her. She had all her clothes on as well as her shoes. She again said she wished to go. She shouted "no" and that as she was not on the pill she might become pregnant. The accused said he would get a condom.
She said she returned to the toilet after he was finished and he became annoyed with her continued pleading to be taken home She saw it was about 4 a.m and shortly after that she ran from the bedsitter after saying she wanted to go to the toilet again. She was afraid she would not get away and rapped on the window of a ground-floor bedsitter.
A man came out in his dressing-gown to ask if she was all right. The accused was coming down the stairs and she demanded her coat, bag and shoes. He got them for her and again asked her to stay with him, saying it was "taboo" in his country for her to leave him like that.
She left the house and he followed her. When she hailed a taxi he tried to kiss her again, but she turned away. She got home and had a long bath before sitting in her nightdress covered by a duvet looking at television.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Barr.