A JUDGE yesterday warned that a rape trial was “not a football match” after the mother and another relative of an accused man, who was found not guilty by a jury, screamed and shouted in celebration at the verdict.
The cheering broke out at the Central Criminal Court in Tralee on the fourth day of the trial before Mr Justice Paul Carney of the 22-year-old man for rape of a woman, who accompanied him to his home in Cork city in October 15th, 2006, to make a CD for him.
The woman, in her mid-20s, was not in the court yesterday. The man, who was 19 at the time, had pleaded not guilty to the single charge.
Mary Rose Gearty SC, prosecuting, told the opening day of the trial the issue was whether or not the woman had consented to sexual intercourse.
The jury of nine men and three women took two hours and 27 minutes to return unanimously the verdict of not guilty.
As relatives of the accused cheered and waved hands and jumped from their seats, Mr Justice Carney ordered gardaí to take the man’s mother from the court.
The acquitted man cried at the verdict and began praying as it was returned.
Mr Justice Carney said these cases were upsetting for everybody. He exempted the jury from jury service for life and discharged the defendant, who had been in custody. He then said he was returning to deal with those who had caused the disturbance.
After a brief recess, two women were brought by gardaí before him. Mr Justice Carney ordered them to the front bench of the court and asked them what they had to say.
The mother said she was very sorry. “It’s just this has been over us for the last four years and we are all tensed up. We are very, very sorry,” she said.
Mr Justice Carney said this sort of behaviour would not be tolerated. “You are not at a football match,” he warned.
However, it was understandable under the circumstances, he added, after hearing the mother.
The trial heard the female plaintiff had been drinking heavily and taking drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy. She left a nearby party with the man.
Ms Gearty outlined how the man had been recorded on her mobile phone by friends of hers saying “all right so, all right, I admit it”, when she returned to the party and told them she had been raped.
Her parents collected her from the house party and brought her to the gardaí. She was brought to the sexual assault unit at Waterford Regional Hospital for examination, as the Cork unit was closed on that date.
Medical evidence was of bruising to her legs and arm.
The man voluntarily went to gardaí, accompanied by his mother, the following day. He had met the woman at the Cork dog track the week before. They had begun kissing at the party.
“She was drunk, she was out of her head,” he also told gardaí. However he denied he had taken advantage of her when they left the party to copy the CD and ended up in the bedroom of his house.
The woman said she had rejected his advances at the house party and she told the trial she had made it clear to him she was not going to kiss him or anything. “It was just to burn the CD and return to the party,” she said. She became anxious when she saw that he had no computer in his living room where she could burn the CD.
She said he pulled her down on the couch and bruised her arm. He pushed her into the bedroom where sexual intercourse took place and she asked him to stop and he did not, she said.
Under cross-examination by Brendan Grehan SC, defending, the woman said she was used to drinking heavily and denied her recollection was affected.