Jury discharged on opening day of sexual assault hearing

A Jury of nine men and three women were discharged on day one of the trial of man charged with sexually assaulting a student at a house following a party.

Judge Francis Comerford took the decision to discharge the jury and to swear in a new one today (Tuesday) at Sligo Circuit Court following a defence application in the absence of the jury.

The man had denied one count of sexually assaulting the then 19-year-old student at a house in the town after she had gone there to celebrate a birthday of a friend on March 2nd 2016. The accused was represented by Mr Des Dockery SC with Mr Leo Mulrooney BL, instructed by Mr Mark Mullaney, solicitor and the prosecution by Ms Dara Foynes BL with Ms Elias McHugh, State Solicitor.

The alleged victim had just finished giving her direct evidence when Mr Dockery made his submission to have the jury discharged. The case is due to begin again once a new jury has been sworn in at the court today.

In her evidence, the alleged victim told how she had gone to the party with a bottle of Ribena as she didn’t drink alcohol and her friends were already there when she arrived some time around 9pm or 10pm.

It was “just your general kind of party atmosphere.” They sang a few songs and there was general chit chat about how college was going.

Many of the party goers went off by taxi into town but she didn’t want to. She would have preferred to go home to her own apartment but it was really bad weather with rain and wind.

Her friend offered her bed upstairs but she didn’t want to do this and made do with couch with her friend getting her a blanket. She tried to sleep but she was uncomfortable and the wind and rain was really bad.

She recalled people returning to the house at maybe three or four in the morning. They were quite loud. A second group came in later which included the accused who came into the sitting room looking for clothes.

Asked if anything was said, witness replied: “There was communication definitely made but the content is pretty much a blur because I’ve chosen not to think about it. I probably asked how did the night go.”

Witness was asked what the accused looked like, she replied that she had a boyfriend and it wouldn’t have mattered what he looked like. She had blurred him out of her life. The accused didn’t find what he was looking for and left the room before coming back in again. She had settled back down on the couch.

The accused came over to her and tried to sleep with her on the couch. He said he would sleep at the bottom. His head was opposite to hers.

“I didn’t know what to do, how to react to it,” said witness who added that she was tired, it was windy out and she was uncomfortable. Her priority was to get some sleep, get up early next day for college and go.

The accused moved up towards her. “I was just afraid, the fact he was drinking, I could smell it off him. He was breathing down on top of me.” She didn’t want to make any drastic movement. “I thought the worst. The worst went through my head,” she said.

The accused placed both of his hands on her breasts outside of her clothes. “He grabbed them and it hurt, he squeezed them.” She told him no and pushed him away.

He got the point, she said and left as “he didn’t get what he wanted I suppose.”

She added: “My body language wasn’t flirtatious or engaging. There was no interest.” She said she was in shock but couldn’t simply run away because it was so windy out. She left next morning and subsequently noticed bruising on her chest which she took pictures of. She told a friend and later made a complaint to Gardaí.