You think you’ll kick and scream but it just doesn’t work like that

Harrowing evidence in alleged rape court case

ON June 28, 2016, a young woman set off for a night out in Belfast with friends. Still in her teens, she headed for the popular Ollie’s nightclub, under the Merchant Hotel.

What happened after she left the club is the subject of a court case which this week rocked the sometimes seemingly staid world of Irish rugby.

Paddy Jackson, 26, who has played 25 times for Ireland, and his Ulster team-mate Stuart Olding, 24, are accused of raping the woman at Mr Jackson’s home during a party after the nightclub.

There is a further charge of sexual assault against Mr Jackson. Both men deny the charges.

Two other men are also on trial on charges connected with the alleged incident. Blane McIlroy, 26, from Royal Lodge Road, Ballydollaghan, Belfast, is accused of one count of exposure. Rory Harrison, 25, from Manse Road, Belfast, is charged with perverting the course of justice and withholding information. Both have pleaded not guilty.

This week, Belfast Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the woman and a friend in the VIP area of Ollie’s – which styles itself ‘Belfast’s most sophisticated nightclub’. The video showed her in the company of members of the Northern Ireland soccer team. Mr Jackson, Mr Olding and other members of Ulster Rugby were also partying in the same area.

The woman was seen briefly placing her hand on the knee of Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty, and momentarily holding on to the arm of Will Grigg.

After the video was played, a defence lawyer asked her: ‘Were you attracted at the time to celebrities?’ She replied: ‘No, I didn’t know who those people were.’ Earlier, the woman insisted she had not gone into the VIP area to meet players.

Under cross-examination, she was also asked if she was intoxicated in the nightclub. ‘I would say I was drunk. Yes,’ she replied.

At closing time, about 2.30am, the woman was standing outside with a number of women who she did not know but who were friends of a close friend. She decided to go with them in a taxi to a party at Mr Jackson’s home. She said Mr Jackson also got into the taxi.

The woman said she had only met Mr Jackson once before when she was working in promotions in a bar and she brought him a drink.

She described dancing to Arctic Monkeys in his house with Ulster Rugby’s Rory Harrison. ‘I was talking to Rory and I said: “I really like this song.” I started to dance. I was talking to Rory quite a bit but it was useless chat.’

At some stage she and Mr Jackson went upstairs to his bedroom. ‘It’s annoying me but I’m really not sure how that happened,’ she said.

She also said she did not have a conversation with Mr Olding at the party. ‘I didn’t speak to Stuart. There was no conversation there. I bumped into him in the kitchen and just said hello,’ she said.

She told the court she kissed Mr Jackson in the same bedroom earlier in the night, but had made it clear she was not interested in anything else. When asked if he had tried to take things further at that time, she replied ‘no’.

It was when she returned to the bedroom to retrieve her clutch bag because she wanted to go home that the alleged rape happened.

On Wednesday, the alleged victim, who is now 21, said she froze when Mr Jackson grabbed her trousers and pulled them down.

‘You know, see, in that moment you think you are going to kick and scream and fight, but it doesn’t work like that. Look, you just freeze. I knew where this was going but it happened so quickly. He sort of pushed me down on the bed.

‘But because I was wearing white trousers, they were quite tight, and when he pulled them down they caught on my knees and I couldn’t actually move. Next thing I remember is being face down on the bed and he is having sex with me.

‘Verbally, I had already told him I did not want this going any further. There was nothing physically about me that said to keep this going.’

At some point, she said, the door opened and Mr Olding came in. ‘My heart just sank. I knew what was going to happen... I look at Patrick Jackson straight in the eyes and said: “Please no, not him as well.”’

The woman told the court: ‘Patrick Jackson was behind me again and Stuart Olding is forcing me to give him oral sex.’

As the alleged attack was taking place, it was claimed the door opened and a female voice was heard. The alleged victim feared she was going to be filmed.

She said it was when Blane McIlroy allegedly appeared at the door, naked and holding his penis, that her ‘fight instincts’ kicked in.

‘I thought, this is not happening again,’ she said. ‘He said: “You f ***** the other guys, why won’t you f*** me?”’

The woman claimed that as she fled she said to them: ‘How many times does it take for a girl to say no for it to sink in?’

‘I would say that I was drunk. Yes’ ‘He sort of pushed me down on the bed’ ‘I have absolutely no complaint with Harrison’

It was at that point that Mr Harrison approached, she said. ‘I was running from the house when the front door opened and Rory Harrison came after me. At first I panicked but then I realised he was asking if I was okay. I obviously wasn’t okay. I was crying a lot and he would have seen the blood on my trousers and stuff like that.’

Mr Harrison and the woman got a taxi, and when they arrived at her house he asked if there were others inside in the house and would not accept payment for the cab. She said he asked for her number and sent her a message afterwards telling her to stay positive.

‘I was actually very grateful. He really couldn’t have done enough for me. I have absolutely no complaint with [Harrison],’ she said.

During the hearing she was asked about her initial reluctance to go to the police. ‘I wasn’t going to go to the police. You just don’t think they are going to believe you,’ she said.

The woman confided in two friends and after attending a rape crisis centre, decided to go to the PSNI. She took the morning-after pill as she wasn’t sure if a condom was used during the alleged rape.

On Tuesday, messages allegedly exchanged between two of the defendants were shared with the jury. Mr Olding wrote on WhatsApp: ‘We are all top sha***rs’ and: ‘There was a bit of spit roasting going on last night fellas.’

He later added: ‘It was like a merry-go-around at a carnival.’ Mr Jackson allegedly replied: ‘There was a lot of spit.’

The case continues this week.