‘I was tired and confused af ter rape’
Accuser is cross-examined
A WOMAN who claims she was raped by two bouncers on US music star Jason Derulo’s tour bus has said her conflicting accounts of the alleged assault were caused by ‘confusion and tiredness’.
The Central Criminal Court heard the woman told three people on the night of the alleged assault that she had been raped anally and vaginally by two men.
Two accused men, aged 35 and 44, deny the offences which are alleged to have happened in a hired tour bus in Cork city following an after-show party at a nightclub on June 27, 2014. The 35-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to rape, oral rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment of the then 19-year-old woman.
The 44-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to anal rape and false imprisonment of the woman. On her second day of cross-examination, the court heard the woman told a garda in the back of a squad car about the alleged attack on that date, confided in a nurse at a sexual assault unit, and detailed her claims in a signed statement to gardaí.
Kerida Naidoo, who is representing one of the accused, said her three accounts differed from a second statement she gave ten days later when she made four additions.
Mr Naidoo said her second account had changed the type of attack she was alleged to have suffered ten days earlier. The woman said she was ‘tired and confused’ but agreed that these were ‘false memories’.
Mr Naidoo stated: ‘This is the first time that the suggestion of being exhausted and confused enters your story that we now know to be false.’
‘Over the course of those ten days you realised that simultaneous anal and vaginal intercourse didn’t happen.’ The woman replied: ‘I was tired and I had the ten days with no one in my ear asking questions. I had my own time by myself. I hadn’t had any sleep, maybe my mind was confused and I was in shock.
‘Everyone was asking me questions and I had time with my family for ten days where they supported me.
‘I gave a statement that morning (of the alleged assault), I had no sleep, no food and no drink.
‘I was tired, confused and shocked about what had happened
Mr Naidoo put it to the woman that she had thought about it and realised she had to take certain details out of if her story was to hold up.
The woman replied again that she was tired, and had no sleep, food or drink when she gave her original statement to gardaí.
Counsel put it to her that her initial account described the men as raping her in turn but her addition to that statement described them raping her simultaneously.
‘Your account didn’t include the detail of simultaneous vaginal and anal sex – the garda read it to you, you stopped her, and said you needed to add it,’ he said.
The woman confirmed she had reread her second official Garda statement prior to coming to court.
‘So if the gardaí had given you your first statement instead, is there any possibility it would have become the truth?’ Mr Naidoo asked. The complainant replied ‘no’. Mr Naidoo said the alleged victim texted her boyfriend at 2.46am that morning, saying: ‘I got raped please can you ring me I need your support.’ The court heard she sent him another text at 2.52am saying: ‘There was five of them.’ The trial continues.
‘I hadn’t had any sleep’