A Garda denied in court yesterday that he used his friendship with an accused man's family to "lull him into a false sense of security" during a rape inquiry in Co Tipperary. The garda agreed he was to have taken photographs at the man's wedding a week after the alleged rape. Previously, he had taken photographs at a wedding of one of the man's relatives.
He also agreed with defence counsel Mr Patrick Treacy (with Ms Maureen Clark SC) in the Central Criminal Court that he had played "a small role" in helping the man's relative and her husband when their marriage broke down.
The garda said the woman asked for advice and he spoke to both her and her husband. His involvement in talking to them was very brief as he was not a counsellor, he said. She later asked him to take photographs at the man's wedding.
The 23-year-old accused man has pleaded not guilty to charges of raping a 25-year-old woman, assaulting her and attempting to choke her with intent to enable him to rape her after midnight in a Tipperary town on September 5th, 1994.
The garda agreed he was the first one to link the man to the description the alleged victim gave of her attacker. He said he and other gardai went out to the house and he spoke to the man.
Mr Treacy suggested he told the accused man only that he was investigating a "serious assault" and did not mention rape. Mr Treacy said his client believed he was suspected of assaulting a man.
The garda denied this and said he told the accused he was investigating an assault and rape. The man denied any involvement with it and agreed to hand over the clothes he had been wearing earlier while out in a pub.
The witness said they were on first-name terms but he had not used his friendship with the family to mislead the man. He said he did not arrest the accused man who agreed to go to the Garda station voluntarily.
He told Mr Treacy that it was correct the man would have been afforded certain rights had he been arrested under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. The gardai would also have had several rights under the Act, he said.
The trial before Mrs Justice McGuinness and a jury continues.