MAN FOUND GUILTY OF RAPE OF GIRL WHO STAYED OVER
A MAN has been convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
The 41-year- old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment in a Dublin suburb on August 21, 2017.
The now 19-year- old complainant, who gave evidence via video link, told the trial that she sneaked out of her home that night after she had been grounded by her mother. She said she was alone in her local town when the accused man approached her.
She gave evidence that the man raped her after she went to his home.
On day nine of the trial following three hours and 29 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned with unanimous verdicts of guilty on the charges of rape and sexual assault. They acquitted the man of the charge of false imprisonment.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their service and remanded the man in custody until his sentence t date of November 29, 2 2021. He ordered the p preparation of a victim impact im statement and a probation report.
The victim told Patrick McGrath SC,
“I felt something on top of me. I opened my eyes and he was just there on top of me,” the teenager said. She said the man was touching her breasts and she told him to stop. She tried to push him off her but he didn’t stop.
“I was trying to stop it but he was stronger, I couldn’t,” the teenager replied. She said the man raped her.
The teenager told the jury that after she left the apartment, she made her way to a nearby train station where she met a friend who told her that her family were looking for her and persuaded her to go a garda station. The gardai called her mother who came to pick her up.
Her older brother told the court his sister later told him back at the family home that she had stayed “in some old man’s house” and that she had been raped.