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The jury has begun deliberations in the trial of a Dublin man accused of repeatedly raping his wife using household objects.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 15 counts of raping the woman on unknown dates between January 1, 2005 and September 5, 2014.
The charges allege that the accused sexually assaulted the woman by penetrating her vagina with various different objects and his finger.
The charges also include an allegation of anal rape and one of penetration of the woman’s anus with his thumb. All 15 offences are contrary to section 4 of the 1990 Rape Amendment Act.
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It is the State’s case that the now 49-year-old woman was unconscious and unable to give her consent when her husband carried out the rapes. The accused has told the jury that all the sexual acts were consensual.
He denied that he took the opportunity to place objects inside his wife without her consent when his wife was “unconscious, asleep, out cold”.
On Thursday afternoon Justice Paul Burns sent the jury home to return to court on Friday morning and resume deliberations.
The jury went out on Thursday morning and has deliberated for just over four hours.