Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TEEN DENIES LYING ABOUT ‘PARK RAPE’ Court told of sex attack claims
A TEENAGER who said he was dragged into bushes and raped denied yesterday he was telling lies.
The accuser, who was 16 at the time of the alleged sex attack and is now 18, rejected a suggestion he made up claims to police and again to the jury.
When asked by a defence barrister if he was subjected to a “terrifying and brutal experience,” he said: “Yeah”.
But the lawyer told him: “Your story is a lie. You are lying. You have lied to the police and you are lying to the ladies and gentlemen in the jury today.”
The complainant replied: “No I haven’t.”
Gerard Scannell is accused of sexually assaulting the young man in a park on July 16, 2016.
The defendant has also been charged with three counts of rape.
The complainant said he was walking alone in the early hours after socialising with pals and claimed he first became aware of a man with “evil eyes” standing at West Belfast’s Norglen Parade.
He added this person asked his name and followed him on to Ardmonagh Gardens.
The young man then walked through a metal gate and on to a pathway at Falls Park, where he alleged he was grabbed from behind.
Belfast Crown Court heard he was trailed into bushes by the back of his T-shirt and forced to perform sex acts as well as being raped.
A barrister asked the complainant why he decided to walk along the dark pathway when he was being followed?
The teenager said his route through the park was only a few minutes long and he just “wanted to get home”.
The barrister said: “The sexual acts that you have described, these acts did not happen as you have described them.”
But the young man replied: “Yes they did.”
And when the lawyer suggested his client did not subject the complainant to a “brutal, forced rape”, he asked: “Are you calling me a liar?” Scannell, originally from Ballymurphy Road in West Belfast but who is now living at an undisclosed address in another area of the city, has pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him.
He has also denied having any knowledge of or contact with the teenager.
BELFAST COURT YESTERDAY