An accounts clerk told the Central Criminal Court she woke in a Dublin hotel after an office party to find a male colleague penetrating her from behind.
She told the jury she jumped up and the man ran out of the room wearing "only top clothes".
The woman was giving evidence on the second day of the trial, before Mr Justice Budd, of a 38-year-old married sales representative. He denies buggering the woman and sexually assaulting her in the Killiney Court Hotel on April 17th, 1997.
In cross-examination by defence counsel Mr Michael McDowell SC, the woman said she complained to gardai on May 2nd, 1997, the day after she had been sacked.
She was told it was for personality conflicts and assumed she was sacked because her boss knew about the alleged incident. Mr McDowell said the jury would hear evidence from her then boss that he knew nothing about it at that time.
In further cross-examination, the woman said she had lied on two occasions to gardai in statements about medical treatment. She said she had intended going to her doctor but was too embarrassed. She returned about 2 a.m. to the hotel where some of the staff had been booked to stay overnight. She had her own room.
The 22-year-old woman claimed the accused had asked her if he could stay in her room but she thought he was joking. She said "no" and he said he would stay in another colleague's room.
She went with others to their rooms at about 4 a.m. and when she reached her room she found the accused and another male colleague standing behind her. She didn't invite them in but they came in when she opened the door. They asked if they could have tea or coffee. She and the accused smoked cigarettes and the other man had tea. She finally asked them a few times to leave because she was tired but she didn't see them leave.
The woman said she fell asleep on her left side. She was wakened by feeling pain by somebody penetrating her. Cross-examined by Mr McDowell (with Mr Raymond Comyn BL), the woman said she couldn't recall the accused coming to her at work to hand her some "unflattering" photographs of herself taken at the party. When Mr McDowell suggested this wasn't the action of a man she alleged "had viciously buggered" her, the woman broke down and said counsel's choice of words upset her. She said she couldn't remember the accused giving her the photographs. Every day after May 17th, 1997 was "a bad day at work" for her.