The trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl at a staff party in Co Mayo five years ago has got underway.
The 33-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on a date between July 14 and 15, 2020 at the premises.
He also denies a second count of defilement of a child under the age of 17 at a different address on July 15, 2020.
The complainant started her evidence at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court before an all-male jury and Judge Eoin Garavan.
The woman, now aged 21, told Pat Reynolds BL, prosecuting, that she drank about five or six bottles of cider at the staff party on the night in question, which lasted from about 7pm until after midnight.
She said she had not known the accused man before that night, but they ended up sitting beside each other and chatting to a number of people. She said that in the course of this conversation, she said she was 16 years old.
The woman said she went for a cigarette with the accused in the back of his car and mentioned that she was in school, while he said he had a girlfriend.
She said that they exchanged each other’s Snapchat details in the car and that later on during the party, he messaged her phone asking to meet her in the bathroom of the premises.
She said the man kissed her and guided her hand towards his groin area over his trousers. She said she was quite inebriated at the time and that she ‘let it happen’ before she “came back” to herself and stopped it.
Later on in the night she said the man asked her to go outside and she followed him into an alleyway and he kissed her again. She said he then penetrated her digitally.
She told the court: “I did not want that to happen in that moment and I said “no” and I pushed him off.”
The woman said they went back to the staff party and she got a lift home from a colleague.
The trial continues tomorrow and is expected to last a number of days.