A rape trial started and concluded within five minutes in the Central Criminal Court yesterday when a woman withdrew her complaint against a Donegal man. Mr Justice Carney directed a jury to enter of a verdict of not guilty, and the 25-year-old man walked free from court.
He had pleaded not guilty to raping a 20-year-old Northern Ireland woman in a Donegal town in the early morning of June 15th, 1997.
Mr Justice Carney said it appeared the woman had made a complaint resulting in the man being in the dock, but it now appeared she had no complaint to make.
Prosecution counsel, Mr Gerard Clarke, had called the woman as the State's first witness and asked her if she would give evidence in relation to the rape complaint she made on June 15th, 1997. She replied: "I want to withdraw my evidence."
Mr Clarke told Mr Justice Carney he had been instructed not to make any application and said there was no further evidence to be put before the jury.
Earlier, in a short opening speech, Mr Clarke told the jury of six men and six women that the woman had attended a disco in Donegal on the night of June 14th, 1997.
Counsel said she met the defendant, whom she knew to see, in a chip shop during the early hours of the next morning. They went for a drive in his new car and they kissed after the man stopped in a car-park.
Suddenly, the seat back was rolled down and he got on top of her, pulled down her clothes and had sexual intercourse. The woman got out of the car, met a garda on the street and made a complaint.