A Boston jury has found a Dublin firefighter Terence Crosbie guilty of raping a woman in a hotel room he shared with a colleague.
The jury of six men and six women found Crosbie (39) guilty of raping a 29-year-old attorney in the lead up to St Patrick’s Day weekend after 4½ days of arguments and after more than 15 hours of deliberation. He faces up to 20 years in sentencing.
A number of male supporters broke into tears as the verdict was delivered, while Crosbie’s wife kept her head in her lap.
The conviction comes after a previous trial ended in a hung jury. A sentencing hearing has been set for October 30th.
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Crosbie and the victim testified in both trials, with Crosbie denying that he ever touched the victim and insisting that his bed was empty when he returned to his hotel room.
The victim said she met Crosbie’s colleague, Liam O’Brien, at The Black Rose bar, and went with Mr O’Brien back to the Omni Parker hotel. She said she was not aware that Mr O’Brien had a roommate, and did not remember meeting Crosbie briefly in the room when she and Mr O’Brien entered. She said she and Mr O’Brien had consensual sex, and then she went to the bathroom and left the light on. When she returned Mr O’Brien was spread out in the bed like a “starfish” and snoring, so she testified that she crawled in the other bed and went to sleep.
She said she woke up to an Irishman she did not know actively raping her, telling her that she “liked it” and that his “friend,” Mr O’Brien, couldn’t give it to her because he was “a loser”.
“What are you doing? Stop,” she told the assailant, according to testimony. “He was continuing to put his weight on me, he was continuing to penetrate me, he didn’t stop,” she said. She testified that she was then able to manoeuvre her feet to the ground and collect her clothes while Crosbie chased her around the room. She made it to the bathroom door, dressed, escaped through the hotel door, texted a friend what happened and immediately went to the hospital to report the assault.
Crosbie’s defence team repeatedly questioned the woman’s account of events, sighting her alcohol consumption; use of psychiatric medication; and that when reporting the assault she could not remember Mr O’Brien’s first or last name; believed her assailant was about her height – when Crosbie is significantly taller – and did not remember the assailant having tattoos.
“I didn’t touch her,” Crosbie testified.
Crosbie and Mr O’Brien had travelled to Boston with more than 10 of his colleagues to march in the St Patrick’s Day parade. Crosbie testified that he was kissing another unidentified woman at The Black Rose, but stated that he declined her invitation to go home with her – countering the state’s argument that Crosbie was out on the prowl, and recently rejected, on the night of the assault.
He said he was in the room when the victim and Mr O’Brien arrived, that he left to wait in a chair in the hallway, and when he returned the lights were out and the bed was empty. He testified that he heard a woman collecting her clothing and leave, but he did not engage with her in any way.
Prosecutors pointed out that when Crosbie was initially questioned by police, he asked if the complainant had alleged that someone had “pinned her down” in the bed without having any previous knowledge of the details of her allegation. He also asked police if his DNA could have got on the complainant due to his masturbating in the bed the previous morning – the prosecution noted that Crosbie had not yet arrived in Boston the morning before the assault.
DNA evidence revealed the presence of two male contributors on the complainant, one of whom was Mr O’Brien. The identity of the second contributor could not be confirmed.
Assistant district attorney Erin Murphy argued that the complainant’s memory gaps were not “meaningful,” Crosbie’s testimony was “scripted” and asked jurors to “think critically”.
Defence attorney Daniel C Reilly argued that the complainant was “unreliable” and reminded jurors of “how high a burden” proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt was.
