PADDY JACKSON: I THOUGHT SHE WAS FINE
Jackson tells court he’d have ‘freaked out’ if a girl left crying
ual assault, was giving evidence at his trial in Belfast Crown Court yesterday. His friend and Ireland and Ulster rugby colleague, Stuart Olding, also denies raping the same woman.
Mr Jackson rejected suggestions he ‘forced himself on’ then ‘pushed and pushed’ the woman. Prosecutor Toby Hedworth QC said: ‘I suggest that you forced yourself on her, then beckoned your friend Stuart Olding to join in when she made it quite apparent to you that she did not want any sexual activity with anyone.’
‘No, it was quite the opposite,’ said Mr Jackson.
Mr Hedworth said: ‘You just pushed and pushed beyond what that young woman was prepared to do.’
Mr Jackson spent several hours giving evidence in the trial which is now in its sixth week. The rape is alleged to have taken place at a party in his home at Oakleigh Park in the early hours of June 28, 2016.
He claimed the woman had flirted, following him from room to room and at one point running her fingernails along his arm. He said he was attracted to her. ‘We had caught each other’s attention.’
They engaged in consensual ‘passionate’ kissing in an upstairs bedroom, but it ended when she realised he did not know her name, he claimed.
However, Mr Jackson said that some time later she followed him upstairs a second time. ‘I went upstairs, I hoped she would follow and she did.’
Mr Hedworth suggested he’d been playing a game of ‘cat and mouse’: ‘How it happened was that young woman went upstairs and you followed?’ ‘No, I didn’t,’ Mr Jackson said. ‘You thought she was a bit of a tease?’ said Mr Hedworth. ‘Did you think “this time I am not going to take no for an answer”?’ ‘No, I didn’t,’ said Mr Jackson. Seeking further detail of the alleged sexual activity in the bedroom, Mr Hedworth said: ‘You inch back, sit down and she takes over?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Mr Jackson. ‘She undid your trousers. Pulls your trousers and boxers down to your knees and then she starts to fellate you?’ Mr Jackson answered: ‘Yes.’ The lawyer then asked if the woman appeared to enjoy what was happening: ‘What was she getting out of it?’
Mr Jackson said: ‘She did it. She was doing it, so she must have.’
He said at some point Stuart Olding walked in and he [Jackson] waved to say ‘hi’. ‘I didn’t ask him or beckon him into the room. It was just a smile. It was a bit embarrassing. I kind of smiled at him and waved at him. It was a bit stupid, kind of “hi, look what’s happening”.’
He said Mr Olding then came over: ‘There was an interaction between them. Her attention went from me to Stuart. She performed oral sex on Stuart.’
He then said he [Jackson] took his trousers off as he thought the activity was ‘going to lead somewhere’. ‘Probably sex or more sexual activity,’ he said.
He said he [Jackson] touched her with his hands, but did not penetrate her with his penis because he had no condom.
Mr Hedworth said: ‘The reality is, I suggest, that you then penetrated with your penis?’ ‘No, I didn’t,’ said Mr Jackson. Mr Hedworth went on: ‘From behind, which is exactly what Dara Florence saw when she blurts her way into the room looking for her friend, 100% certain that you are having vaginal
PADDY Jackson spoke about his close friendship with Ireland rugby captain Rory Best saying he minded his children for him.
‘Rory Best is a bit older, but I would be, am very close to him. I would have learnt a lot from him over the years.’
Mr Jackson’s barrister Brendan Kelly asked him if he was close socially to Mr Best and he replied that he was.
Enquiring about social interactions with Mr Best, Mr Kelly asked: ‘You were tasked with babysitting his children?
Jackson said: ‘Yeah, I would, and I got invited to his son’s sixth birthday.’
sex with the female on the bed.
‘You had resisted that temptation with that woman in that position, not to put your penis inside her. Notwithstanding the amount of drink you had taken, you were showing complete restraint?’ asked the barrister. ‘Yes,’ Mr Jackson answered. After Mr Olding left the room, Mr Jackson claimed he and the woman lay on the bed together, as he floated in and out of sleep.
He said he could not remember Blane McIlroy, entering the room. Mr Hedworth said: ‘You apparently fall asleep. You have no consciousness of Mr McIlroy ever coming into the room?’
‘No,’ said Mr Jackson.
He claimed he woke up to find the woman putting her clothes on, but at no point was she distressed. ‘She wasn’t,’ he said.
‘The last thing I know I would want is anyone upset. The last thing I would want is a girl crying and leaving my house. I would have completely freaked out.
‘I would have gone to help her. If I had known she was upset I would have tried to contact her.
‘The last thing I would ever want is having someone upset. For fear of this. I would be aware stuff like this happens.
‘I just went to bed. I had no idea that she was upset.’
He said he had woken up the following morning ‘happy’. He said he met his friends for lunch and went out drinking again.
‘The night happened as it happened and I woke up happy with what had happened,’ he said.
Later in his evidence, he said he was in a cafe with Mr Olding two days later when then-Ulster Rugby head coach Les Kiss phoned him, and Ulster Rugby manager Bryn Cunningham phoned Mr Olding and advised them to go to the police station. ‘[Les Kiss] said, “Paddy, the police are here, you need to go to Musgrave Police Station”. My heart sank. I didn’t know what was going on. Stuart looked shocked as well,’ he said.
‘Les called me again. He said, “Have you left yet?” I said, “Do you have any idea what this is about? I’m freaking out”. He said, “I don’t know. It sounds grave”.’
Mr Jackson said that at the time he thought the sexual activity with the woman ‘was good’. ‘Now, I don’t ever want to be involved in anything like this again.’ He denied ‘concocting a story’ with his co-accused after the alleged attack in case an allegation of rape was made. ‘No, that did not happen,’ he said.
Blane McIlroy, 26, denies exposure while Rory Harrison, 25, denies perverting the course of justice and withholding information. The case continues today.