A man has admitted he put his wife at potential risk of contracting AIDS by having "casual sex" with an alleged rape victim two days after his 22nd wedding anniversary.
In reply to prosecution counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon, in the Central Criminal Court yesterday, the 51-year-old Sligo man denied he had raped the 43-year-old woman. He has pleaded not guilty to committing the offence in his house on July 26th, 1996.
He claimed the woman had enticed him to have sex by bluffing her way into his house on the pretence of needing to use the toilet, and then lying naked from the waist down on a couch in the living-room.
Mr Sammon said he did not wish to be offensive to the woman, but he suggested to the accused that she was in mid-life and "not in the first bloom of youth".
He also suggested the man had been aware of the personal difficulties in her life and added: "She was no Sophia Loren throwing herself on the couch, naked from the waist down. Were there no feelings of repulsion?"
The man repeated that he had been tempted.
When the accused said he could not say if he got aroused easily, Mr Sammon said: "There is a factory in Cork selling Viagra which is bought like hot cakes by gentlemen who can't get it up. Have you ever suffered from such problems?" The man agreed he had not.
He accepted Mr Sammon's assertion that such encounters could give rise to a risk of sexually transmitted diseases.
He had not gone to his GP or an STD clinic for tests in relation to possible infection with HIV, hepatitis or other diseases. He could not recall if he had sexual intercourse with his wife between the time of the incident and July 31st, 1996, when he was arrested.
He had asked that his wife be brought to the Garda station so he could explain to her himself that he had had consensual intercourse with another woman.
He said he was naive regarding the risks of casual sex but was not reckless.
This incident was the one and only time he had been unfaithful, he said.
Afterwards he had felt guilty about having sex with another woman within days of his wedding anniversary and worried that he could have compromised his employment.
Earlier, a detective told the court that last Saturday the alleged victim told him she intended suing the State if the accused man was acquitted.
She claimed her case had been mismanaged because her clothing had been lost in Garda custody and had never been forensically examined.
She repeated her assertion that she never wanted to come to court. She had been made travel by train to Dublin and would not do so again.
Her partner had been made come to give evidence even though he was not in a fit state due to illness.
The trial continues.