Schoolgirl danced with man who later raped her, jury told

An Offaly schoolgirl told a jury at the Central Criminal she was raped by a 21-year-old man she had met and kissed earlier at…

An Offaly schoolgirl told a jury at the Central Criminal she was raped by a 21-year-old man she had met and kissed earlier at Spiders Disco in Tullamore.

The defendant has pleaded not guilty to three charges of raping the woman, sexually assaulting her and of oral rape on May 3rd, 1997.

The now 18-year-old alleged victim told Mr Gerard Clarke SC, prosecuting, she drank two bottles of beer in a village pub before going to the disco with friends. They arrived there at about 11.45 p.m. and she drank no more after that.

She danced mainly with a girlfriend but agreed to dance slow sets with the defendant at his request. They kissed during these dances and afterwards she went with him to his flat.

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The teenager told Mr Clarke (with Ms Dara Foynes) they were kissing until he began to get rough. She agreed with prosecuting counsel she had asked the defendant if he had a condom because she knew "what he was going to do" and she didn't want to get pregnant or to get a disease. She didn't consent to his actions.

The schoolgirl agreed with Mr Clarke she made her first statement to gardai on May 8th, 1997 and a second one on May 13th in which she admitted that some of her initial claims were not accurate. Cross-examined by Mr Barry White SC (with Mr Colm Smyth), for the defendant, the alleged victim agreed she made no protest when she found nobody else in the flat on their arrival. She sat on the couch, the accused put on music and they began kissing, by consent.

She denied Mr White's suggestion that she had co-operated with the accused and that they had reached full intercourse by consent. The schoolgirl also denied she had instigated oral sex and claimed she "repeatedly" asked the defendant to stop.

The alleged victim's girlfriend said she was very upset and crying when they got a taxi to go home about 15 minutes after leaving the disco. The alleged victim had said earlier she was "going down the street" with the defendant when they left the disco at 2 a.m.

The witness said the alleged victim kept repeating "he wouldn't let me go, he wouldn't let me go". Her clothes were "all over the place". The alleged victim went to the bathroom in witness's house. When she came out of it the alleged victim showed witness her bra which was torn and also two scratches on her abdominal area as well as a bruise at her hip. They then had a cup of tea and a sandwich and went to bed.

Cross-examined by Mr White, the witness agreed she had not seen the torn bra before the alleged victim went to the bathroom. She made no complaint about rape before getting into the taxi or before they went to sleep.

Witness said she took her friend's comments about the condom to mean she did not want to have sex if the accused did not have a condom. The morning afterwards the alleged victim told her she might be pregnant as the accused "had come inside her". The hearing continues before Mr Justice Smith and a jury of seven women and five men.