Friend denies ‘sanitising’ his statement to police in order to help out accused
A MAN “guessed” his friends from the Ulster Rugby team were being questioned by police about allegations of rape, a court heard yesterday.
Rory Harrison, who denies perverting the course of justice and withholding information, told detectives he had made the assumption because of rape allegations against sports stars like ex-England footballer Adam Johnson.
Mr Harrison (26) was initially questioned by PSNI officers as a witness, but was later accused of providing officers with a “sanitised version” of what happened that night, and giving his friends an opportunity for “damage limitation” by helping them “get round the table” to “come up with a plan”.
He denied this, Belfast Crown Court heard.
Ulster and Ireland players Paddy Jackson (26) and Stuart Olding (24) deny raping the same woman at a house party in June 2016. Mr Jackson denies a further charge of sexual assault. A fourth man, Blane McIlroy (26), denies one charge of exposure.
Among several issues police addressed in a series of interviews in October 2016 was a claim made by Mr McIlroy that Mr Harrison said he thought a woman may have “cried rape” when Mr Jackson and Mr Olding were questioned by police.
As the interviews were read to the court on day 22 of the trial, the jury heard how, when asked why he had “guessed” rape out of all possible charges that could have been levelled at his friends, Mr Harrison told detectives: “It’s often in the forefront of your mind because you hear it happening to high profile sports people — high profile sports stars quite often get brought into this stuff.”
He later added: “Because all over the news there’s quite a few of them, Adam Johnson and another English footballer. You don’t really see high profile cases with them about anything else.”
He also said he did not recall saying that to Mr McIlroy, and that he had known the police were looking into an assault, and that “rape is a type of assault”.
In the course of the interviews Mr Harrison was also questioned about a message he had received from the complainant in the hours after the alleged attack in which the woman, aged 19 at the time, told him what had happened with his friends was “not consensual”.
When asked why he didn’t tell police about this in his first interview as a witness, Mr Harrison said he didn’t know what had happened and didn’t want to speculate.
He also said he was never asked about contact between himself and the woman, adding: “If I had been asked, I would have answered that fully.”
Accused of providing police with a “sanitised version” and “trying to help your friends by omitting crucial information”, the court heard Mr Harrison denied this. The jury also heard he had no recollection of seeing Mr McIlroy, or anyone else, naked. He also told detectives Mr Jackson, Mr Olding and Mr McIlroy “wouldn’t be my best friends or anything like that”.
Earlier the jury of 12 was reduced to 11 when a male juror was dismissed due to illness.
Judge Patricia Smyth told the eight men and three women left: “I have spoken to a member of your group who has been feeling unwell and has received a medical report. I have discharged him from any other involvement in the trial.”
The case continues.