Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A PACK OF LIES
Prosecutor slams Mcilroy’s version of events at house party
ONE of the four men charged in connection with an alleged rape was yesterday told his account of the night was “a pack of lies”.
Blane Mcilroy, was accused of giving Stuart Olding’s “lines” to police.
Prosecutor Toby Hedworth said: “You never had sexual activity. You thought your job was to give this version that was hatched up.”
The 26-year-old denies a single charge of exposing himself to the complainant.
BLANE Mcilroy was told in court yesterday his account of a night when a woman claims she was raped was “a pack of lies”.
The 26-year-old faced prosecutor Toby Hedworth for 90 minutes and agreed the details of his police statement.
However, the barrister told Mcilroy: “You got your lines wrong,” and instead of giving police his version of events he had allegedly given them Stuart Olding’s.
Mr Hedworth told the court Mcilroy, Stuart Olding, Paddy Jackson and Rory Harrison had created a version of events over lunch following the house party at Jackson’s home in June 2016.
Mcilroy, 26, is solely charged with a single count of exposing himself to the complainant during the party. He denies the charge.
Ulster rugby player Jackson, 26, from Belfast’s Oakleigh Park, is charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault.
His teammate Olding, 24, from Ardenlee Street, Belfast, is also charged with rape.
Harrison, 25, of Manse Road, Belfast, is charged with perverting the course of justice and withholding information.
They deny all the charges against them.
The woman, then aged 19, claimed in court Mcilroy had appeared at the door of Jackson’s bedroom naked and started masturbating and had thrust his penis at her.
She also alleged he told her: “You f **** d them, why won’t you f*** me?” Mcilory denied he had said that. He had earlier told the court about his alleged intimacy with the complainant in an exchange with his barrister Frank O’donoghue.
Mcilroy said he went into the bedroom to go to sleep and found Jackson and the woman chatting and naked on the bed.
He said he went in and sat on the bed beside her and they started kissing.
Mcilroy, of Royal Lodge Road, Belfast, explained: “While we were kissing, her left hand went down the waistband of my boxer shorts into my trousers.
“She was groping my penis, as I started to get hard she started masturbating me as much as she could with my trousers still on.
“Then I loosened my belt, pulled down my zip and shuffled my trousers down.
“The reason it stopped was because she asked to get condoms. I went downstairs to see if Rory had them and he didn’t so I went into upstairs living room to ask Stuart, he didn’t answer he was asleep. I went back into the bedroom.” But Mr Hedworth told Mcilroy: “You’ve delivered the wrong lines. You’ve put yourself there instead of Stuart Olding.
“You never had sexual activity. You thought your job was to give this version that was hatched up.”
Mcilroy replied: “No, that never happened.”
Mr Hedworth put it to him: “It’s all come apart at the seams – this put-up job.”
Mcilroy responded: “No, that’s not correct.”
The prosecutor put it to Mcilroy: “This is complete fantasy island.” He denied it and Mr Hedworth challenged him, saying he and his three friends had come up with a story in the face of police interest.
The barrister said: “Unfortunately, you gave Stuart Olding’s version of events.” Mr Hedworth also put it to him that his agreeing to the description by a friend of the women in the house party in the night in question as “brasses” showed his attitude towards them. The barrister said: “That encapsulates your attitude to those young women that night.” Mcilroy responded: “No, I knew they weren’t brasses.”
Mr Hedworth asked the accused about his interest in one of the women
at the party, Dara Florence. Mcilory confirmed he was interested in her and accepted he had asked her to stay overnight and told her as she was leaving: “Come on just stay, I’ll give you the best night of your life.”
Ms Florence called a taxi which arrived at 4.26am and left the address at 4.28am.
During the minute in between, Mcilroy texted Jackson and asked: “Is there any possibility of a threesome.” Mcilory said: “Yes, I said ‘possibility’.”
Mr Hedworth told the court: “These young women were, as far as you were concerned, there for your own sexual gratification”
Mcilory said; “No that’s not right.” The accused man was also asked about texts he had deleted from his mobile phone before he attended the police station.
In one of them he was responding to Harrison and messaged him: “F*** sake. Did you calm her down?”
Asked why he deleted them he said: “I was panicked. I wasn’t worried but I thought they’d be read the wrong way.”
At the end of the cross-examination, Mr Hedworth put it to Mcilroy: “The lads circled the wagons didn’t they?” He replied: “No.”
Mr Hedworth said: “It would all be OK if people would remember their lines, Mr Mcilroy?” He responded: “We didn’t have any lines.”