Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘I TOLD RAPE ACCUSED NO AT LEAST 7 TIMES’
Alleged victim ‘grabbed by her waist into wooded area’
A TEENAGER who claimed she was raped after enjoying a summer’s day out with pals at a beach told police she said no “at least seven times”.
An interview she had with a female police officer in November 2021 was played at Belfast Crown Court yesterday.
She told police the male who raped her was two years above her in school and was “three times” her size.
She is one of three teenage girls who have accused the male, who was aged between 15 and 16 at the time of the alleged offences and who cannot be named due to his age, of rape.
Confirming she and the accused attended the same school, the girl said that in November 2019 he sent her explicit pictures of himself and asked her to send him “nudes” which she refused to do.
The girl said around April/may 2021 he again messaged her and asked her to meet in the Botanic area of Belfast before school but she made excuses, didn’t meet up with him and asked him to stop texting her.
When asked by the policewoman what the messages were about, she replied: “He wanted to meet me for sex.”
She was then asked about the alleged incident in Helen’s Bay, Co Down, and she told the officer that on the afternoon of July 17, 2021 she and a group of friends got the train from Belfast to Helen’s Bay.
The girl said during the course of the day she consumed alcohol and by that evening she was “pretty drunk”.
She said: “People had speakers, everyone was just dancing, listening to music, talking to people about random stuff.”
The teenager said later as she was making her way back to the train the accused was “just there” and as they walked through a clearing, the accused “grabbed” her by her waist and pulled her into a wooded area.
When asked what happened next, the girl said: “He said ‘do you want this’ and I said ‘no.’ He was saying ‘you are going to take it’ but I didn’t want it to happen.”
The teenager claimed the accused then pushed her down, that she landed on her front and she was then raped.
Saying he was “three times my size”, she told police she kept saying “no” and that her legs were being stung by nettles.
She said: “I couldn’t fight him. I was saying ‘no’ but he told me to shut up. I was shouting at him to get off me. I kept saying ‘no’ and that I didn’t want this.”
When asked by the policewoman how many times she said “no”, she replied “at least seven times” and that she was face down “the whole time”.
Having got on the train afterwards, she told two of her friends what happened.
In her interview, the girl said the next morning the accused messaged her on Snapchat.
When asked what the message said, she replied: “He said make sure you get the morning after pill. It disgusted me. I thought ‘you just raped me’. I didn’t reply and I haven’t spoken to him since.”
The court had heard two other girls, both aged 16, had also contacted the PSNI alleging they were raped by the accused in July 2020 and May 2021.
The jury previously heard the accused was interviewed by police and denied all three girls’ allegations.
He accepted he had intercourse with all three but claimed all the incidents were consensual.
He also told police he was someone who respected females, that he would listen to them and that he would consult them about sexual matters.
He said make sure you get the morning after pill TEENAGE VICTIM EVIDENCE HEARD IN COURT