A Jamaican who denied being a gigolo has been convicted of the rape of his former girlfriend in their Dublin city centre flat last year. A jury took almost five hours at the Central Criminal Court to find the musician/disc jockey guilty of rape, anal rape and assault of the 36-year-old woman during a row after a party on the night of August 24th-25th, 1996.
The 29-year-old man was illegally in the State, having overstayed the time allowed for a holiday. He was remanded in continuing custody by Mr Justice Carney to January 16th for sentence.
During the six-day trial, the defendant, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded not guilty. In evidence he also denied telling the woman earlier in their relationship that he had "played the gigolo in Belgium" prior to coming to Ireland. He also denied deliberately urinating on her after raping her.
The woman told the court she had never had a boyfriend before and was a virgin when she met the defendant in a pub. Within weeks, she had moved into a flat with him and paid for everything. She was going to show him off to her friends at the party but shortly after they arrived he became angry and they went home. He assaulted her as they were going upstairs to their flat.
He left to go to a nightclub and, when he returned hours later, he forced her to strip and raped her, she said.