Woman mistook accused for someone else, rape trial told
A woman has told a rape trial she had sexual intercourse in a Clare hotel during a weekend wedding party with a man she mistook for another guest with whom she was sharing the room.
She told the jury of five women and seven men at the Central Criminal Court she had been asleep when a man began kissing her. It was only after they finished having sexual intercourse that she realised he was not the man she had gone to sleep with but was another guest at the wedding.
The accused, a 40-year-old Dublin man, has denied raping her in the hotel on March 31, 2003.
The 31-year-old woman told prosecuting counsel, Ms Deirdre Murphy SC (with Ms Pauline Walley BL), she had been resident at a different hotel nearby and the day before the wedding she met a man to whom she had been previously attracted.
They spent the night in her hotel room after the wedding reception but did not have full sexual intercourse even though they had engaged in sexual activity before going to sleep in her bed. They met the following day and she went to his hotel for the night.
She said nine other wedding guests, including the accused, were staying at the hotel where the man she fancied was staying. She intended to stay the night with him and enjoyed a few drinks with him and others before they went up to bed.
The accused had offered his room to them for the night after his girlfriend, who had been sharing the room with him, had left the wedding party earlier that day.
The man she fancied had been sharing a room with a male friend of his and took up the accused man’s offer of his room.
When they went up to the room they pushed together the twin beds that were in it and they kissed and cuddled before going to sleep. A short time afterwards she woke up to being kissed and she responded because she thought it was the man she had gone to bed with.
She said they engaged in various sexual activities leading up to full sexual intercourse. During this time he asked her, "Do you know who this is?". She said she laughed and replied of course she knew and named the man she fancied.
After they had intercourse he left the room, not responding to her request to switch on the room light.
He also failed to respond to a request she made during their sexual activities for him to light a candle that was on the bedside table.
She said she became worried when he left the room without saying anything. The room was still pitch dark and she only saw a silhouette when he opened the door to leave the room. She left the bed and went to the bathroom where she saw the accused with a towel around his waist.
It was then, she said, she realised she had just had sexual intercourse with the accused and not with the man to whom she was attracted.
She told Ms Murphy she immediately went to look for the man she had gone to bed with and found him asleep in the room he had been staying in originally. She then told him that the accused raped her and they reported the matter to gardaí.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Barry White.
