Midlands ‘gang rape’ accused told self-serving lies, prosecution claim

Each of the four men on trial for taking part in the “gang rape” of a teenager girl lied and gave self-serving accounts to gardaí, a prosecutor has told a jury at the Central Criminal Court.

In the early hours of the morning of December 27th, 2016 in a midlands town the then 17-year-old girl got into a car with five men, a decision she has told the jury she now believes was “very stupid”.

The defendants each allegedly sexually assaulted her as the car was driven out of the town. The car was driven to a remote location nearby and three of the defendants, and the fifth man who is not on trial, allegedly raped her in turn at this location.

The jury has heard that two of the defendants were later dropped off at a house back in the town and the car was driven to another location. The woman has said that she asked to be let out of the car but was ignored and that one man raped her for the second time at the same time as a fourth man forced his penis into her mouth.

The defendants, who were aged between 17 and 19 at the time, deny all the charges. Neither they nor the complainant can be identified in accordance with the 1981 Rape Act.

Evidence ended on Thursday morning and closing speeches have begun and will continue on Friday before Justice Tara Burns and a jury.

In his closing speech for the prosecution Lorcan Staines SC told the jury that the complainant was legally a child at the time that she was “gang raped” by “five boys”.

He said that during her evidence she did not seek to do “anybody down” and that there were numerous occasions for her to exaggerate her evidence but she didn’t do that. He noted that many of the charges against the defendants come not from her allegations but from their own admissions to gardaí.

“Imagine a situation where so many sexual things were done to you that you yourself can’t even remember some of them,” counsel said.

He said that the defendants seemed to have a misunderstanding of what constituted consent. He said the defendant’s assertions that the girl “didn’t scream, didn’t shout”, “there was no gun or force” spoke to “rape myths”.

He said that failure to offer resistance does not amount to consent and that a person does not consent if she permits or submits to an act because of the application of force.

He said the complainant’s evidence was that she didn’t know how the men would react if she tried to run from the car or call the gardai using one of the men’s phones.

He said that each of the four defendants told demonstrable lies during the course of numerous garda interviews and that they later admitted to these lies.

He said that the driver, who was 17 at the time of his garda interview in March 2017, was an admitted, persistent and inept liar. Counsel said this defendant told gardaí “I didn’t touch one finger on her” but later he said he touched her leg while the other men touched her breast and genital area.

He later said the others had penetrative sex with her when he parked the car in the remote location but that he didn’t. He later admitted that she pushed him and the others away when they were touching her on the journey out.

In a follow up interview in August 2017 he said he did not ejaculate at any point on the night. DNA results showing the presence in his underwear of his semen and of a co-accused were put to him and he then told gardaí that he had lain on top of the woman in the car and was touching her but his trousers were not down.

He told gardaí “I want her to prove I was inside her”. Counsel said that his account was ridiculous and filled with ludicrous lies.

Mr Staines said that the account given by the second accused matched that of the girl in many instances. He said both he and she said that during the car journey others were reaching to touch her and she said stop.

Counsel said the accused even told the others to stop himself and told gardai that he and three others had penetrative sex with the girl in the car in the remote location. He later accepted a suggestion from gardai that they took advantage of the girl and that he felt bad and sorry.

He said he would tell her not “sorry, try to forgive us”. Mr Staines said in March 2022, the defendant’s remorse has melted away “and he has the gall to look you in the eyes and plead not guilty”.

He said the third accused and the others met in the days after the incident and “they were ineptly trying to get their story straight”. He told gardai he never ejaculated and didn’t have his penis out, but when DNA results showing the presence of his semen on the girl’s top were put to him, he told them he walked off his own at one point in the night and masturbated.

This defendant is accused of orally raping the girl in the car at the second location while the previous accused raped her and the driver watched. Mr Staines said the jury should consider carefully the fact that this man denies that he ever had his penis in her mouth and that she is inventing this.

“Nobody else is suggesting that she invented things that didn’t happen,” he said, noting that in some cases she has said she cannot recall some of the sexual acts the men have admitted took place.

Counsel said that the fourth man’s defence was a devious one in which he claims he changed his account about “getting a handjob” in the car in a later interview because he pressurised by gardai off camera.

Mr Staines said that during his arrest the defendant had access to his solicitor, spoke to his mother and made no complaints of ill treatment.

He said that a consultant surgeon who testified about a serious condition the defendant had which made having an erection very painful was misled. He said this medical expert should have been told that the defendant told gardai that earlier on the night of the alleged rapes he was in a nightclub kissing a girl and grinding up against her and he became “turned on” and had a “pre-cum” discharge.

He said this defendant told gardai that he had lain on top of the girl but decided not to have sex with her because he realised it was wrong. He said that he “probably would” consider it rape if he had “had sex with her in that state”.

Counsel said the accused presented his decision not to proceed with penetrative sex as “a moral decision”, saying “I just got the feeling not to, I realised I shouldn’t have sex with her”.

Mr Staines said at no point did he say it was because “he couldn’t” and at no point during the recorded interviews did he mention his medical problem to gardai.