A young woman told a Central Criminal Court jury she woke up at about 5.30 a.m after a birthday party to find another guest on top of her having sexual intercourse. The 24-year-old alleged victim claimed the man said: "Sorry, wrong room", and left buckling his trousers when she got him to stop the intercourse.
She told prosecuting counsel Mr Anthony Sammon SC she knew from his "smell" and from his "moans and groans" when she woke that there was something wrong and that it was not her fiance, with whom she had sexual intercourse about two hours earlier.
A 35-year-old Dublin man has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman on January 5th, 1997.
The jury also heard the alleged victim's fiance tell how he hit the accused after the incident. He knew the accused and they had been in conversation for over an hour before the alleged rape.
The woman said she and her boyfriend with others had some drinks on the night of January 4th to celebrate one of the group's birthday. They were all invited back to his house and had some drinks. She went to bed at about 3 a.m and had sex with her fiance.
The alleged victim said she was not aware of anyone coming into the room or of her pyjama bottom being removed. She awoke with the accused on top of her having sex with her. There was little or no light in the room when she woke up but she got out of the bed when he got off her and she could see it was the accused after she opened the bedroom door. She said she knew who it was straight away.
Her fiance came up and she told him what had happened. He left her and sent another friend up and when she went to the bathroom she saw him talking to the accused on the stairs. A girl who was in the party advised her not to clean herself but to leave everything as it was for forensic evidence. She dressed and went to a Garda station.
Cross-examined by Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, she agreed her fiance's account to gardai of what she told him differed in some aspects with her evidence.
Mr Hartnett said her fiance told gardai she claimed she heard someone coming into the room, getting into her bed, snuggling up to her and removing her pyjama bottoms before having sex. She accepted Mr Hartnett's suggestion that what she told her fiance 10 minutes after the alleged incident should have been clearer than her version 12 hours later to gardai.
She told Mr Hartnett she had no recollection of mentioning aftershave. She was "sure" the accused said: "Sorry, wrong room", but "could not be 100 per cent certain".
"He said something going out of the room and chuckled and I thought he said: `Sorry, wrong room', but he might have said: `Sorry, I shouldn't have done that' or that it was the wrong bed.
The hearing, before Mr Justice Carney, continues.