The complainant in the trial of three men accused of rape and sexual assault has told the Central Criminal Court that she believed she was drugged.
The three men, aged between 34 and 42 and with addresses in Dublin and Wicklow, have pleaded not guilty to a total of seven counts of rape, oral rape and sexual assault of the woman at an unknown location in a car and in a Dublin house on August 31st, 2019.
The men cannot be named for legal reasons.
The woman told Karl Finnegan SC, prosecuting, that she and her housemate went for some drinks to a local pub at about 7pm on August 30th, 2019. They then left and bought some more alcohol before going for dinner and drinks at another friend’s house.
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The complainant said she and her housemate left around 12.30am, went to a pub for a drink, then on to a nightclub. She said they got to the nightclub at about 1.30am or 2am and got drinks when they arrived.
The woman said she and her housemate were “dancing there and having a good time”.
She recalled talking to a group of men about “nothing of significance, maybe just silly chat”. She told prosecuting counsel that there were three or four men in the group, but she was not sure.
The woman said her housemate told her she was leaving. “I told her I’d follow her home. ”
She said “things started to get a bit faded and hazy” after her housemate left, adding “I believe I was drugged”.
When asked by Mr Finnegan about her intentions after her housemate told her she was leaving, the woman said she “wasn’t ready” to go home.
“I didn’t think I was unsafe, I knew a few friends were out that night,” she said.
The woman said she could not remember how long she was at the nightclub after her friend left and assumed she had another drink, but could not say.
When asked by Mr Finnegan if the men bought her a drink, she said they “could have” or handed her a drink. She said there was also a “bag of white powder in the vicinity”, but told prosecuting counsel she couldn’t recall if she took any.
She said she did not remember leaving the nightclub. Her first recollection after leaving was sitting in the back of a vehicle, which she thought was a taxi. A man was sitting with her and three others were also in the car.
She said her memory of the vehicle was “hazy” but “I remember a male being on top of me.”
“I couldn’t move, I felt like my body was heavy,” she said, adding that she was raped in the vehicle.
The woman said she could not talk, but recalled hearing something about “having a go” next. She agreed with Mr Finnegan that she believed someone said this “about me”.
She said she was raped for a second time in the car, but did not know if it was the same person or one of the others.
She said the car stopped at some point and the driver opened the door. She recalled the driver was “playing with his zipper then there’s nothing else from me until the house”.
She said she does not remember entering the house or how she got there and her next memory was lying horizontally at the end of a bed.
She said there were two men in the room, one of whom was on top of her. She said she tried to kick out her leg, but “wasn’t going to be able to fight”.
The woman said she passed out and when she woke the next morning, she was lying at the top of the bed, with her feet pointing downwards and a man asleep beside her. She said she was “panicking”.
She said she was dressed, but her jeans were “haphazardly pulled up” with the buttons open.
She said she got out of the bed while trying not to wake anyone. She ran downstairs and grabbed a black jacket hanging from the stairs as she couldn’t find her own.
After she left the house, she walked to a nearby road and ordered a taxi. She also sent her housemate a pin drop of her location.
The woman said she stopped to get cash to pay the taxi and food for her housemate, who knew something was wrong when she got back. She said she told her housemate she had been raped.
She said her friend called the rape crisis centre and she spoke to them. She said she then took some time to “make my mind up if I wanted to go in” to the Garda.
She said she went to her local Garda station later that day and made a complaint.
As there was no immediate appointment at the sexual assault treatment unit, she went with gardaí to see if she could identify the area. “I couldn’t pinpoint the house, but I was pretty certain of the area”.
She said she was brought to the unit, where she was examined and her clothes were taken.
The first man, aged 39 with an address in Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the woman in his home address and not guilty to one count of oral rape and one count of sexually assaulting her in a car.
The second man, aged 42 with an address in Wicklow, has pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the woman in the car and one count of raping her in the house.
The third man, aged 34 with an address in Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to orally raping the woman in the house and sexually assaulting her in the car.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Burns and the jury.
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