Day by day, the full story of the trial that shocked the country

It was the trial that made headlines and rocked the world of Irish rugby. A young woman of 19 went to a Belfast nightclub, Ollie’s, with friends on June 28, 2016, not knowing that what was to follow that night would form the basis of a lengthy police investigation and a nine-week courtroom drama that became an ordeal for all involved. Our reporter, who gave her account of the events as they happened, recalls here the claims and counter claims as a world of sex parties, drinking and explicit texting on social media was laid bare.

EVIDENCE OF WOMAN WHO MADE THE COMPLAINT

THE woman, who gave evidence from behind a curtain, which was then relayed to the court through a screen, broke down in tears as she gave a graphic account of how she said Paddy Jackson had attacked her.

‘He grabbed my trousers, by the waistband. He undid them and pulled them down to my knees,’ she told the packed courtroom.

‘You know, see, in that moment you think you are going to kick and scream and fight, but it doesn’t work like that. ‘Look, you just freeze. ‘I knew where this was going but it happened so quickly. He sort of pushed me down on the bed. But because I was wearing white trousers, they were quite tight, and when he pulled them down they caught on my knees and I couldn’t actually move.

‘Next thing I remember is being face down on the bed and he is having sex with me.’

She said that she had kissed Mr Jackson in the same bedroom earlier in the night, but had made it clear she was not interested in anything else.

When asked, by prosecution barrister Toby Hedworth QC, if Mr Jackson had tried to take things further at that time, she replied no. It was when she returned to the bedroom to retrieve her clutch bag because she wanted to go home that the alleged rape happened, she said.

‘Verbally, I had already told him I did not want this going any further. He knew I did not want this to happen and he kept going.’

At some point, she claimed, the bedroom door opened and Stuart Olding walked in.

‘My heart just sank. I knew what was going to happen. I looked at Patrick Jackson straight in the eyes and said, “Please no, not him as well.” Next thing I know my trousers were off.

‘Patrick Jackson was behind me again and Stuart Olding is forcing me to give him oral sex.’

She told the court that ‘someone’ was ‘pushing’ on her head.

‘I presume it was Stuart but I don’t actually know who it was,’ the woman said.

As the alleged attack was taking place, it was claimed the door opened again and a female voice was heard. The woman on the bed feared she was going to be filmed, the court heard. She told the court: ‘I immediately turned my head away.’

When questioned by Mr Jackson’s barrister, Brendan Kelly QC, about why she had not revealed to friends that there was a potential witness to the alleged attack she replied: ‘Because the whole rape had been so traumatic, that was what I had focused on. The fact that someone had walked in was secondary.’

The woman added: ‘Whenever the girl walked into the room, the stage that she walked in at, she had already missed the moment that those men crossed the line.

‘She had not witnessed the blatant disregard for the fact that I did not want to have sex.’

She said that it was when Blane McIlroy allegedly appeared at the door, naked and exposing himself, that she claimed her ‘fight instincts’ kicked in.

She told the court that as she fled, stuffing her underwear into her pocket, she said to them: ‘How many times does it take for a girl to say no for it to sink in?’

The woman said she ran downstairs and out of the house but had to return to get her mobile phone to call a taxi.

It was then that Rory Harrison approached her, she said.

‘I was running from the house when the front door opened and Rory Harrison came after me. At first I panicked but then I realised he was asking if I was okay.

‘I obviously wasn’t okay. I was crying a lot and he would have seen the blood on my trousers and stuff like that.’

Mr Harrison and the woman shared a taxi, and he asked for her number and sent her a message shortly afterwards telling her to stay positive. She said: ‘I was actually very grateful. He really couldn’t have done enough for me. I have absolutely no complaint with Rory Harrison.’

The alleged victim also told the court that she is not a rugby fan and was not aware that the players in Ollie’s nightclub were there before she first met them.

She said she had drunk one and a half large glasses of wine and three double vodkas during the course of the night but had nothing alcoholic to drink at the house party.

She was questioned again, on the second week of the rape trial, as to why she did not seek help from the female who walked in on the alleged attack.

Mr Jackson’s barrister, Mr Kelly, asked her: ‘Why did you not ask for her help?’ The woman responded: ‘What was she going to do? I didn’t know her. I thought she was going to film me.’

She also contested defence claims she had taken her top off by ‘agreement’. Although she could not recall who made the alleged request, she said: ‘I was ordered to take my top off. I wanted it to be over, so I took my top off.’

During cross examination by counsel representing Mr Olding, Frank O’Donoghue QC, she was asked if her alleged attackers had kissed other parts of her body.

She said: ‘I was handled like a piece of meat. There was not one bit of my body that they did not touch.’

Also, in prosecution evidence, the complainant described her trousers as having blood stains.

Mr Kelly asked: ‘Where are they covered in blood?’

The woman responded: ‘The blood I noted was on the inside of the trouser. I myself was covered in blood whenever I took them off.’

She rejected defence suggestions she had been bleeding prior to the alleged rape.

‘The only reason there could be blood on those pants is because you were bleeding immediately prior to the attack that you describe,’ said Mr Kelly. But she responded: ‘That’s completely incorrect. I was bleeding because of Patrick Jackson.

During further cross examination, the woman was questioned about text exchanges with a friend hours after the alleged assault.

In one message, at 9.52am, she wrote: ‘Worst night ever. So I got raped.’ The text was followed by five upside down emoji faces, which she said represented a ‘mixture of emotions’.

Asked by the defence if they suggested any sort of ‘regret’, she replied: ‘Why would I regret a situation I had absolutely no control over, Mr Kelly?’

She told the court she texted rather than rang her friends because she didn’t want her family to hear her talking.

GOING TO THE POLICE

THE young woman told the court she initially did not want to go to the police for fear she would look like a ‘stupid little girl’.

She told a friend via text, hours after the alleged incident: ‘No, I do not want to get the police involved. You know how that will turn out. It’s my word against theirs.

‘Ulster Rugby will vouch for their good character and I’ll just look like a stupid little girl.’

However, the female student confided in two friends and, after attending a rape crisis centre, decided to go to the PSNI.

She told the court she was glad she had spoken out.

‘The more I thought about it, rape is a game of power and control. They rely on your silence’, she said.

RORY BEST’S APPEARANCE

ULSTER and Ireland rugby captain, Rory Best, and team-mate, Iain Henderson, attend the first day of the alleged victim’s evidence. Pictures of the two men entering the court, prompted a furore on social media, with the #notmycaptain hashtag emerging.

While Mr Best and the IRFU avoided commenting initially on the basis that the court case was ongoing, her commented after Ireland’s victory over France on February 3.

‘The reason I was there, it’s on the record, I was called as a character witness, and I was advised that it is important that I got both sides of the story so I could make an informed decision about that.’

The following Monday, Judge Patricia Smyth told the court that Best was instructed to attend by a senior counsel.

She said: ‘The only reason that Mr Rory Best was in this courtroom was because he was directed to be here by senior counsel.

‘That’s the reason he was here. That’s the only reason. I think you should know that.’

Three of the alleged victim’s friends said they had never seen their friend break down or cry so were at a loss when she did so in the aftermath of the alleged rape.

‘She was very emotional and I’d never seen her like that before,’ one said.

TAXI DRIVER

TAXI driver Stephen Fisher, who brought the woman home on the night of the alleged rape, told the court, in the third week of the trial, that the alleged victim was crying and sobbing while Rory Harrison, who was with her, attempted to console her.

Mr Fisher told the court: ‘The young woman definitely seemed very upset.

‘She was crying, sobbing throughout the journey. She did not really talk very much at all, bar telling me where she needed to go.’

When asked by the prosecution

about Mr Harrison’s actions, Mr Fisher told the jury: ‘The gentleman in question was attempting to comfort the lady.

‘I believe I remember her head was placed on his chest. He was trying to comfort her.’

When questioned about a phone conversation involving Mr Harrison in his taxi, Mr Fisher said: ‘To me, from what I heard, I would explain it as talking as sort of in code.’

He said he heard ‘small snippets’.

‘I recall him saying to the person on the phone “She is with me now. She is not good. I’ll call you in the morning”,’ added Mr Fisher.

FEMALE WITNESSES

THE court also heard evidence from witness Dara Florence, who was in the house on the night. She said that when she looked into the room where the alleged rape was happening, she thought she had witnessed a threesome.

She said: ‘I closed the door, kind of laughed and said: “I have just seen a threesome.”’

Ms Florence, who did not know the alleged victim, had been partying with friends at Mr Jackson’s home that night.

It was when she and a friend went to look for a third intoxicated companion that she walked in on the sex act, the court heard.

Having heard ‘moaning’ and ‘groaning’ from an upstairs bedroom, she said she opened the door, mistakenly believing it may have been her missing friend.

‘Paddy was, like, kind of sitting on his knees and [the complainant], her bum was up against him, having sex, and then her head was down towards Stuart’s [Olding] middle,’ she said.

She said she believed Mr Jackson was ‘penetrating her with his penis’. He was ‘thrusting into her’, she said. When asked about Mr Olding’s position, the woman described how he appeared to have been propped up on pillows.

‘His legs were, like, spread out and her head was in the middle of them,’ Ms Florence said.

The court heard how Mr Jackson allegedly asked her if she wanted to join in the sexual activity but she declined.

She said she stood over her police statement that the woman had not appeared to be distressed. ‘One hundred per cent,’ she said.

Another witness, Claire Matthews, described how she had been behind Mr Florence when she opened the door’.

But another witness Emily Docherty, who stayed over because she had too much alcohol taken to make it home, said that when she asked Mr Jackson if he’d had a threesome, he shook his head and said, ‘No, nothing happened.’

WHATSAPP AND TEXT MESSAGES

ON the fifth week of the trial the court heard of a series of text and WhatsApp messages sent between the accused men and their friends in the days after the alleged rape.

The alleged victim was also exchanging a series of texts with her friends.

In one exchange, on June 30, 2016, Mr Harrison expressed hope the case against his friends could be dismissed. In a text exchange, he said: ‘Hopefully it’s just thrown out. Just a silly girl who’s done something then regretted it. ‘Yeah, surely it will be.’ ‘I know but she’s causing so much trouble for the lads.’

‘Yeah mate, if that got out like. The other thing is the cops went straight to Les Kiss [then-Ulster Rugby coach] which is f ****** ridiculous.’

It was the first time the court heard claims that the PSNI spoke to Ulster Rugby before contacting the defendants.

The jury was told one of the WhatsApp groups was named ‘Jacome’ while another was called ‘The Juicers’.

In a message in The Juicers group, the day after the alleged rape, Mr McIlroy posted a picture of himself and three girls captioned: ‘Love Belfast sluts.’

In another message, he boasted to a friend: ‘Pumped a bird with Jacko on Monday, roasted her, then another on Tuesday night.’

Earlier, the court heard of a message between Mr Olding and an unnamed friend.

When asked, ‘how was she’, Mr Olding wrote: ‘She was very, very loose.’ The friend also asked: ‘Any sluts get f ***** ?’ To which Mr Olding replied: ‘Precious secrets.’

Later the same morning, he wrote on the Jacome WhatsApp group: ‘We are all top shaggers.

‘There was a bit of spit roasting going on last night fellas.’

Mr Jackson added: ‘There was a lot of spit roast last night.’

Mr Olding wrote: ‘It was like a merry-go-round at the carnival.’

The day after the alleged rape, Mr Harrison wrote to Mr McIlroy: ‘Mate the scenes last night were hilarious. Walked upstairs, there were more flutes than July 12.’

Separate messages exchanged between the complainant and her friends were also read out inn Langanside courthouse. Asked if she told her alleged attackers to stop, she wrote: ‘Of course I did but they were too strong.’

JACKSON EVIDENCE

GIVING evidence, Paddy Jackson told the court he believed the woman was enjoying herself during their sexual encounter.

He also said he would have ‘completely freaked out’ if a girl ever left his house crying and upset.

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 during the four hours he gave evidence.

He claimed they had ‘caught each other’s attention’ and had engaged in consensual ‘passionate’ kissing in an upstairs bedroom but it ended when he admitted he did not know her name.

He said some time later she followed him upstairs a second time.

Mr Hedworth suggested he’d been playing a game of ‘cat and mouse’.

The lawyer said: ‘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 [Mr Jackson] waved to say ‘hi’.

‘I didn’t ask him or beckon him into the room. It was just a smile.’ He said Mr Olding then came over. He said: ‘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 [Mr Jackson] touched her with his hands, but did not penetrate her with his penis because he had no condom. He said he could not remember Mr McIlroy entering the room.

He said he woke up to find the woman putting her clothes on, but at no point was she distressed.

The court had earlier heard details of a police statement Mr Jackson gave in which he said he had drunk eight cans of beer, four pints of stout, two gins, five vodka and lemonades and three shots of tequila and sambuca on the night.

OLDING EVIDENCE

STUART Olding said he had eight tins of Carlsberg, four pints of Guinness, two gin and tonics, five vodkas with lemonade, five shots of tequila or sambuca, and another beer.

Mr Hedworth said: ‘If you had that amount of drink, there’s a danger of disregarding the wishes or views of another person if they get in the way of what you want to achieve.’

Mr Olding replied: ‘I wouldn’t agree with that.’

The court heard how Mr Olding had initially gone upstairs to find somewhere to sleep.

He said that the door to Mr Jackson’s bedroom was closed, but he opened it and walked in. ‘I saw Paddy on his back and [the alleged victim] on top of him and they were kissing at the time.

‘I’m certain Paddy’s top was off. I’m not sure about his trousers. [The woman] was fully clothed.’ When asked what his reaction had been, he said: ‘I had just intruded in two people kissing on the bed. I turned to leave. [The woman] turned around and held out her hand as an invitation to stay.

‘I’m sure of that. I closed the door and went over to the bed and started to kiss [her].’

He said ‘Everything that happened that night was consensual.’

The prosecution barrister also spent some time questioning Mr Olding about his interpretation of ‘spit roast’ – a term the defendant had used on WhatsApp the next day.

When asked why he would have used the term, Mr Olding said he had been ‘boasting’ and ‘exaggerating’ to his friends to ‘make it seem more than what it was’. Asked if he had caused the alleged victim’s vaginal injuries, Mr Olding said: ‘I did not cause those injuries.’

MCILROY EVIDENCE

BLANE McIlroy, who was accused of exposing himself to the woman, said he had hoped for a threesome with her. He agreed that he was serious when he sent Mr Jackson a text message asking if there was a chance of a threesome.

The 26-year-old said he got no reply from his text and that around ten minutes later he decided to go upstairs to sleep.

He said he opened Mr Jackson’s bedroom door and saw him and the woman lying on the bed before going into the room. He said: ‘I sat down on the bed beside [her]. She turned towards me, and me and her were talking and we started kissing.’

He was asked by his defence barrister, Arthur Harvey QC, if there had been any reluctance on the woman’s part. He replied: ‘No’.

When asked if the kissing was mutual, he replied: ‘Yes.’

He told the court that the woman then put her hand down the waistband of his boxer shorts and performed a sex act on him.

Mr McIlroy said he then left the room to find a condom and when he came back the woman was at the foot of the bed getting dressed. ‘I said I couldn’t find a condom. She said “it’s fine, it’s late.” She said, “I don’t usually have one night stands”,’ Mr McIlroy said.

He said the alleged victim was not upset when she left the house.

Under cross examination by the prosecution, Mr McIlroy was accused of inventing a ‘preposterous’ version of events.

Mr Hedworth suggested that all of the accused together concocted a story for police but that Mr McIlroy ‘delivered the wrong lines’ and gave them Mr Olding’s version of events as his own.

Mr McIlroy replied: ‘No, I’ve told the truth from the word go.’

He admitted deleting texts from his phone when he realised there was a police investigation saying he ‘panicked’ and thought the messages ‘didn’t read well’.

RORY HARRISON EVIDENCE

MR Harrison was the final defendant to give evidence.

He said that at lunch the day after the alleged rape he didn’t tell Mr Jackson about a text he received from the alleged victim in which she said what had happened was ‘non-consensual’.

He said that he had decided not to mention it because he didn’t believe the woman’s text and did not want to worry his friend.

He said there was no conversation about the complainant or her text message. He told the court he had not seen a rape happen, he did not believe a rape had happened and that there had been no attempt to cover up or to concoct a story about what had happened.

He said the complainant ‘seemed a bit quiet’ and he offered to bring her home. As they walked to a garage to get a taxi, he said the woman was ‘a bit more upset at this stage, crying’.

He denied speaking in code to Mr McIlroy when on the phone to him in the taxi. Mr Harrison returned to the witness box the following Monday afternoon, where he was cross examined denying he was ‘delegated’ to look after the alleged victim.

Mr Hedworth QC told the court: ‘It was noted how much of a state she was in and you, either of your own volition, or it was delegated by one of your friends to get her home.’ Mr Harrison answered: ‘No, that’s not right.’

He could not recall much about the woman’s physical appearance other than her hair colour but could remember her ‘staring’ at Mr Jackson and being ‘fixated’ on him. He could also remember her following Mr Jackson upstairs, the court heard.

Mr Harrison rejected prosecution suggestions that his account was designed to ‘row his friend Paddy Jackson’ out of trouble.

He also attempted to explain a message in which he wrote, ‘Walked upstairs and there were more flutes than Twelfth of July’, saying it was a joke.