Girl (16) gave no ‘verbal or physical’ signs she didn’t want sex – accused

Teen charged with schoolmate’s rape tells court atmosphere was ‘romantic’

A TEENAGER accused of raping a schoolmate when they were both 16 told a court the girl gave no “verbal or physical” indication she didn’t want sexual activity to happen.

The youth also maintained the atmosphere between himself and the girl as they walked back from the scene of the alleged offences was “romantic”.

The accused, now 19, has denied one count of rape and another of oral rape of the girl outside a building in a town in Co Donegal in the early hours of March 18, 2016. At the Central Criminal Court yesterday, the accused gave his account of meeting the girl after they had been drinking separately with friends on the evening of St Patrick’s Day.

The youth told Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, he had consumed a pint of Bulmers, a shot of Sambuca, a Green Diesel drink and was on his second can of Bavaria when he met the girl and her friend in a takeaway.

“I was tipsy but I wouldn’t definitely say I was drunk,” he said, describing how the girl agreed when he suggested they go for a walk. “We were both in good form, flirting. I remember saying to her that I thought she looked great and she returned the compliment.”

The accused told his counsel they went behind a building and started kissing and at one point the girl’s head banged against the wall behind her.

He said he pressed “very lightly” on the girl’s shoulders to demonstrate that he wanted oral sex and denied that she gave any indication she didn’t want it to happen.

“There was... no verbal indication that it wasn’t something that she wanted to do, and no physical indication,” he said.

He claimed she then consented to sexual intercourse but the act didn’t occur.

The accused said a van drew up quite close to where they were and he told the girl he would go up and ask the people in the van to leave.

He told the court when he came back he noticed the girl was “a bit upset and uncomfortable” and he said he told her, “listen we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to”.

When asked about the atmosphere between them as they walked back up the street he replied: “Romantic, I suppose, to put a word on it. We were both very comfortable in each other’s company.”

He described how he went on into a nightclub by himself. Under cross-examination by Patrick McGrath SC, prosecuting, the accused agreed that he sent some Snapchat message to one of the girl’s friends some weeks later asking to talk to her.

“I’ve heard some really f ***ed rumours in school I want to make sure she’s OK,” he wrote in one message.

When asked why he didn’t try to contact the girl afterwards, he said he had tried to text her on Snapchat but that she had blocked him.

He rejected suggestions that the girl told him a number of times that she didn’t want to (have oral sex) or that he had pushed down on her shoulders throughout.

“That’s definitely, definitely not what happened,” he said.

He also rejected a suggestion that he had kicked her legs apart and raped her, despite her asking him to stop five or six times.

The trial resumes on Monday.