Meath man is cleared by jury of rape

A SHOUTING match erupted between two factions after a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin last week cleared a Meath man on a charge of raping a now 29-year-old woman in Cavan when she was eight or nine years-old.

The 37-year-old married accused had denied raping and indecently assaulting her on two dates between August and December 1988 at an address in County Cavan.

The jury of five women and seven men returned not guilty verdicts on both charges after less than two hours deliberation on day three of the trial.

During the trial before Mr Justice Paul Carney, the now 29-year-old woman agreed she had made complaints of sexual abuse against other named men and the jury also heard that the accused replied "It's all lies" when questioned by Gardai.

The complainant told prosecuting counsel, Mr Paul Coffey, SC (with Ms Monica Lawlor BL), that it was dark on both occasions she alleged the accused assaulted her.

The first incident happened when she was going to a nearby shop and she encountered the accused standing outside his house. She said he took her around the back of his house into a shed before he took her into the house and undressed her on a bed before indecently touching her body.

She told Mr Coffey that, after a while, he said his girlfriend was coming and he stopped. He then brought her to a shop, bought her sweets, and told her not to tell anyone what had happened.

The woman said that, some weeks later, he took her into her home where he had been asked to turn on the lights and he threw her on a bed, took her clothes off and raped her. She was crying and asking him to stop and he replied: "Shout as loud as you like because nobody is going to hear you."

They then heard her sisters come up the lane and he told her to stop crying. Both of them were dressed when her sisters came into the room.

She told defence counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby, SC (with Ms Miriam O'Reilly BL), in cross-examination, that the incidents she claimed happened before she moved house to another area. She denied that she hadn't moved away at the time she claims the accused sexually abused her.

She told Mr Gageby she couldn't see anyone else in the house when he indecently assaulted her and she couldn't say how long it went on for. "He could have been sexually attacking me for a few minutes or longer. It's like a lifetime ago now."

She told Mr Gageby in further reply that she wasn't sure of the times the alleged offences happened but recalled that it was dark each time.

She agreed, when pressed by Mr Gageby, that she actually couldn't see some of the matters she reported to the Gardai such as the accused taking off his trousers and dropping them and her clothes on the floor but she knew he had done these things. She found her own clothes afterwards on the floor.

She agreed with Mr Gageby that she had made complaints against other named men whom she claimed had sexually assaulted her by improper touching. She also agreed with defence counsel that she was treated for depression when she was around 21 years-old. She said she told her partner that the accused raped and indecently assaulted her when she was eight or nine years-old and that her marriage was alright.

The complainant denied Mr Gageby's suggestion that the accused never raped or sexually assaulted her. "I know what happened to me. I have to live with that," she replied.

Sergeant Christopher McCormack told Mr Coffey the accused was arrested on suspicion of rape some days after the woman made a formal complaint to Gardai in County Cavan in 2002.

The accused denied he raped or sexually abused the woman or that he ever had any sexual contact with her. "It's all lies," he told Gardai.

Sgt McCormack told Mr Gageby, in cross-examination, that Gardai had neither maps, photographs nor any other details of the places where the alleged offences happened. He also agreed that Gardai didn't have dates of birth of the woman's siblings or of the accused's family.