Belfast trial: ‘It’s daunting. It’s quite horrible and you get blamed’

Rape was something the young women had discussed, in the weeks before the events which are the subject of the ongoing trial in Belfast’s Crown Court. One of the complainant’s friends was asked in court last week why she had said, during those conversations, that if she were raped she would not go to the police. The young woman glanced out from the witness box across the ranks of gowned and wigged barristers, solicitors and court officials, the line of defendants, the crowded press area and the packed public gallery: “Because of what’s happening in this room,” she replied. “It’s daunting. It’s quite horrible and you get blamed. It’s a distressing process.”

The grainy black-and-white CCTV footage was shown repeatedly, shoals of young people moving through the nightclub in the minutes before it closed, the long, sleek hair of the young women shining in the lights. Counsel tried to establish shot by shot what was happening, stopping, rewinding, using the cursor to draw attention to a hand on an arm, a witness looking back, another leaving.

The complainant, who was a 19-year-old student at the time of the alleged rapes and assaults, finished giving her evidence last week, after eight days of cross-examination by barristers for the prosecution, and for the defendants, all of whom deny all of the charges, which include rape, sexual assault, exposure and withholding information. Counsel for one of the men put it to her that her evidence alternated between “truth, untruth and self-delusion”, and that she regretted what had been a consensual encounter. She denied these accusations.

Discussions about rape

Her friends were called. In their discussions about rape prior to the alleged events of that night in June 2016, one of them had texted that she had heard of “loads of people” who were raped, that this was “scary”. The first of them had been in the company at Ollie’s nightclub on the night of the alleged incidents, but had left before her. She was the first person in whom the complainant confided hours after the alleged rapes in a text which read: “Worst night ever. So I got raped.” One of the barristers asked her to explain what the five upside down smiley emojis which followed meant “to your age group”. It was “when something goes wrong”, she replied. He also inquired about LOL, which featured in another text from the complainant. “When is that used?” She said that it was not used as the acronym for laugh out loud: “It softens the blow, it’s that sort of term.” She had responded to her friend emotionally: “I should not have left you. I’ll never leave you again.”

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She, and another friend in whom the complainant also confided, urged her to go to the police. The complainant was initially reluctant, citing stress, humiliation, publicity, how she would be perceived, and her concern about the high profile of the defendants. “Not worth it,” she texted.

The taxi driver who brought the complainant home gave evidence that she was "sobbing into herself" on her way home. The man who was with her, Rory Harrison, had been trying to comfort her, the driver said. In a text, the complainant had described him to her friend as "a real nice guy". The driver dropped them on the gravel drive of her home, and the man helped her to the door, then returned to the taxi. The driver had asked him if it had been a rough night, and he replied, "You could say that." The driver took it that this meant "the gentleman did not want to talk about it". The driver had checked his seats because he thought he had seen a dark mark on the young woman's trousers, but there was no staining.

Bedroom door

Harrison was initially interviewed by the PSNI as a witness, prior to being charged with perverting the course of justice and withholding information, allegations he denies. An officer told the court that, when interviewed, Harrison told him that when complainant came back with others to Paddy Jackson’s house after the nightclub, she had been “staring at” and “fixated with” Jackson. After Jackson went to bed, she had gone upstairs. Later on he had met her outside Jackson’s bedroom door. He said that on the way home she had “kept crying into herself”.

Another officer was questioned about why one of the witnesses, a young woman who was in the house that night also, had been recalled to make a second statement. He said the detective leading the investigation had told him that “some detail was lacking”. The young woman had given evidence in court during the week that she had witnessed “a threesome” and that she saw nothing to suggest it was non-consensual.

Questioned further about the taking of her second statement, the officer said he was instructed to find out more about “the noises she could hear” from Jackson’s bedroom, and what she had seen when she opened the door. She had said she could hear moaning. “You were asked to clarify what sort of moaning it was?” counsel asked. The officer agreed. He had also wanted to find out more about “where were people’s hands”. He said this interview took place in an office which he had to borrow from someone in Hollywood PSNI station because there was no longer a designated interview room.

One of the complainant's friends gave evidence that she brought her to look for the Belfast Rape Crisis Centre but they could not find it. They were told it had closed down.

Judge Patricia Smyth told the jury to put the trial out of their minds for the weekend. The case resumes on Tuesday.