Accuser was ‘f ixated with Paddy’, rugby rape trial hears
A WOMAN who accused Irish rugby international Paddy Jackson of rape was ‘fixated’ with him, his friend said.
Rory Harrison’s statement to a Police Service of Northern Ireland detective was read out yesterday during the Belfast Crown Court trial of four men on charges connected with the alleged rape.
The statement said the alleged victim was staring at Mr Jackson and followed him five minutes after he disappeared into his bedroom after the house party at his Belfast home.
Mr Jackson, 26, from Oakleigh Park in Belfast, denies raping the woman in June 2016. He also denies a further charge of sexual assault.
Mr Harrison said the alleged victim ‘appeared to be staring at and fixated with Paddy’. He added that she ‘did not appear to take her eyes off Paddy’.
Stuart Olding, 24, from Ardenlee Street in Belfast, also denies raping the same woman.
Two others have been charged in connection with the same alleged incident. Blane McIlroy, 26, from Royal Lodge Road, Ballydollaghan, Belfast, denies exposure. Mr Harrison, 25, from Manse Road in Belfast, denies perverting the course of justice and withholding information.
Mr Harrison’s statement said that he did not notice anything out of the ordinary about the alleged victim. He told police that he saw the woman standing outside a bedroom at Mr Jackson’s house, but was not sure what she was wearing.
They had been having a party downstairs and Mr Harrison said the woman had disappeared upstairs five minutes after Mr Jackson went up.
Mr Harrison’s statement said he went upstairs to say goodbye to Mr Jackson and Mr Olding and saw the alleged victim standing outside a bedroom. Mr Harrison told police: ‘I did not notice anything out of the ordinary.’
He said Mr Jackson was lying on his bed, half awake and told him that he would see him later.
He said Mr Olding was with a female, and both were asleep and lying on a sofa fully clothed.
Mr Harrison said he was in the living room when the alleged victim came in. His statement continued that he took her home in a taxi. The pair sat in the back seat, he said, and there was ‘no real conversation’. ‘She kept crying into herself and appeared to be unsettled,’ he said. He added
‘Appeared to be staring at him’
that he did not notice anything peculiar about her appearance.
He said he walked her to her front door, ‘gave her a hug and got back into the taxi’. ‘I then went to bed,’ he added.
He concluded his statement by saying that he, Mr McIlroy, Mr Jackson, and Mr Olding met up the following day at the Soul Food restaurant on the Ormeau Road in Belfast, but just talked about the South Africa rugby tour Mr Jackson had recently returned from, rather than what happened the previous night.
Previous hearings of the court case have been told alleged details of WhatsApp messenger conversations about the night in question. Yesterday, the court was also told that a detective involved in the investigation was not made aware, at an initial briefing, that a woman who had been at the party, Dara Florence, walked into the bedroom when the alleged rape happened.
Previous sittings of the court have been told she believed a threesome was taking place.
Another detective said he was asked to quiz Ms Florence for a second time, after she alleged she heard noises, characterised by a barrister as moaning, not screaming.
Earlier this week, the court heard evidence from the taxi driver who took the woman home that she was sobbing and crying and that he noticed staining on her trousers. The trial is due to resume on Monday.