A Donegal man who told gardaí that a woman forced him to have sex with her in his car after they left a pub in the early hours of the morning has been cleared of rape at the Central Criminal Court.
The jury took less than two hours to find him not guilty of raping the woman in June 2005. Mr Justice Paul Carney discharged him from the court and thanked the jury for its care and attention to the hearing. It was day six of the trial.
The woman (27) told Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, that she had known the accused for some years. She would socialise with him and others in local pubs and had no reason to be "unhappy" with his company. On June 18th, 2005, she said she was in a pub from about 6pm until about 11pm then moved to a second pub in which the accused was drinking. She decided to walk home at about 2.30am, and the accused offered her a lift.
A tape of love songs was playing in the car while they drove towards a nearby town. He stopped at a place with which she was not familiar. She said that when she asked him to continue driving her home, he raped her and then drove off.
She was taken to her mother's home at about 5.30am by a motorist she had flagged down.
She denied she had consented to any sexual activity.
Garda Bernard Mullins said the man told gardaí that the woman forced him to have sex with her. She wanted him to do it, he said, and she enjoyed it.
Garda Mullins said when asked if he felt guilty about having sex with her because he knew her boyfriend "for years", he replied: "Yeah, probably."