A man has gone on trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court charged with sexually assaulting a woman at a Galway city address six years ago.
In her opening statement to the court, Geri Silke BL, prosecuting, told the jury that they would hear evidence regarding events which allegedly took place on October 28, 2019.
The trial, which is due to take three to four days, is being presided over by Judge Brian O’Callaghan.
The accused man (39), who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assaulting the woman.
The jury heard that at the time of the alleged offending, the complainant had travelled to Galway to meet with her friend. They began getting ready for a night out and had some drinks in the bedroom of her friend’s rented accommodation.
The jury heard that the accused man – her friend’s “on/off” boyfriend – came to the house, joined them for drinks, and later drove them to Galway city, where they went to a bar in Eyre Square. The group of three stayed in the bar until closing time, and the accused man then drove them back to her friend’s accommodation.
The group had one or two more drinks in the bedroom and went to sleep, with the complainant, her friend and the accused man lying horizontally in the bed. The jury heard that at approximately 6am, the complainant woke and felt something around her thighs.
Her pyjamas and underwear, which had been pulled up around her waist when going to sleep, had been pulled down, and the accused was allegedly touching her genital area with his hand.
The complainant told the jury that the accused man digitally penetrated her vaginally and rectally. She said she initially “froze” and then “jerked” and pulled both her underwear and pyjamas back up.
She said she then heard the accused man pulling up his trousers and doing up his belt. The complainant said she stayed in bed until she heard her friend’s flatmates moving around, before she got up and went downstairs.
The jury heard that when she went back upstairs, she saw her friend and the accused man both sitting up in bed. She said her friend was tearful and asked that she give them “10 minutes.”
The complainant said she went back downstairs and waited for the accused man to leave. When he was gone, she said she went to her friend’s bedroom and disclosed what had happened. She later told her mother and then the gardai.
The young woman was taken to a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in Galway and examined. The court heard the complainant told the accused man via Facebook Messenger that she was reporting him for what he had done, to which he replied, “What do you mean? What happened last night? You are sick. You came onto me behind [her friends’] back. You were chatting me up.”
In cross-examination, Brendan Browne BL, defending, asked the woman if she had met the accused man before, to which she replied no. He asked her while in the bar if she had touched the accused at all, to which she replied she could not remember.
Mr Browne asked the complainant why she had sent the accused a message giving him a “heads-up”. She said she wasn’t really giving him a heads-up, that she was “angry” and wanted him to know he “was not getting away with it”.
Counsel put it to the woman that in her earlier evidence, she said she had gone to sleep beside her friend. He asked where was the friend when she woke to the alleged offending taking place.
She said: “When we fell asleep she was behind me, when he [the accused] was finished he did his trousers up and rolled my friend back beside me. He then slid in behind the friend.”
He asked her if she had “cried out and looked for help” or alerted her friend, and she said: “No, you don’t know what you would do until you’re in that situation – fight or freeze. I froze.”
Mr Browne told the woman that his client said he had his arm around her friend and that the complainant turned around and began to rub his arm, then made erotic noises, pulled her t-shirt up and placed the accused’s hand on her stomach. The woman refuted this.
Defence counsel said it was his client’s position that the complainant lay on the bed and pushed his hand towards her genital area, to which she replied this was “untrue”. He said his client’s account of the activity that took place that night was consensual, to which she did not agree.
Mr Browne put it to the woman that she engaged in consensual activity with the accused man in the bedroom on that night, to which she replied: “No, I did not.”
Finally, he put to the injured party: “If there was any substance to your allegations, you would have cried out, called for help or told him to stop.”
The injured party replied: “I was scared.”
The trial continues before Judge O’Callaghan and a jury.