An intruder who made his way into a Cork city hotel room stripped naked, got into bed with a sleeping woman guest and sexually assaulted her, Cork Criminal Circuit Court heard yesterday.
He fondled her and got her to fondle him until she realised he was not her husband and screamed for help. Her shouts woke her husband who was in a bed alongside with one of their sons. After giving the man his clothes and getting rid of him, the frightened couple called the hotel management and made a complaint.
The incident was outlined to Judge Anthony Murphy and a jury by Mr Sean O'Donovan for the State. A 33-year-old Cork man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the Dublin woman at the Metropole Hotel, Cork, on October 31st, 1995.
Mr O'Donovan said the couple had booked a break at the hotel and arrived with their two young sons on October 30th. They were given a room with two double beds and a cot and that evening put the children to bed. The younger boy was in the cot and the older in one of the beds. They went for a drink and a meal in the bar and restaurant and went to bed at 11 p.m. It was the last night of the jazz festival weekend. Mr O'Donovan read statements made by the couple to gar dai about the incident, which Mr Tom Creed, defending, said were not contested.
The woman said she got up to go to the bathroom at about 1 a.m. Soon after, her husband got up and at the same time their older son woke wanting a drink. She asked her husband to get the child some water and she remembered him attending to the boy. There was a lamp between the two beds which was left on all night.
She said she was woken by someone fondling her breasts. She had her back turned and she was half asleep. "I turned over and looked at his face and he was sweaty and I thought he didn't look like my husband. I suddenly realised it was not. I looked across at the other bed and saw my husband in bed with our son. I screamed and ran across to them."
Her husband shouted at the man, asking him what he was doing there and who was he. He was given his clothes and he left. "We complained to security and I had a bath and got dressed. We were given a different room but I couldn't sleep I was so upset." The following morning the couple went to the gardai.
Her husband said he stayed in his son's bed leaving his wife undisturbed in the next bed. He was awoken by her screams and saw a naked man in the bed with her.
"He sat up in bed and looked around. He said he was in another room and I told him he had got the wrong room. We found his clothes on the floor and he dressed and went away." It was only then that his wife told him what had happened. "She was shouting `just get him out, get him out'. We were both very frightened."
Garda evidence was given that the couple identified the accused man on a hotel security video and also in an identity parade on January 17th, 1996. He was subsequently arrested.
The man told gardai he remembered looking for the residents' bar after the jazz was over. He got lost and found himself in a bedroom. He remembered a man asking him what he was doing and he left.
A friend of his said they went drinking together that day and ended up in the Metropole because he had tickets for the music there. "We were in a number of pubs first, we were on a day out. We were drinking shorts and pints of lager. We went to the hotel between 10 and 11 p.m. and stayed until the music ended at 2 a.m."
The man said he remembered trying to find the residents' bar after that, but had no memory of going home. He later found out that he took a taxi home with another friend. At no time were he and the accused man intending to stay at the hotel.
The trial continues today.