A teenage girl allegedly raped in a public park by a 17-year-old boy told gardaí that she wasn't aware of what was happening because she was so drunk.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of raping the girl and not guilty to one count of sexually assaulting her at a park in south Dublin on April 13th, 2019.
The complainant in the case is also now 17 years old and today the jury viewed footage of a recorded interview carried out by a child specialist interviewer three days after the alleged assault.
Friend's home
In the interview the girl said that on the evening of the previous Saturday she went to a friend's home and the two girls were drinking vodka and gin.
She said they then left the house and went to a nearby Tesco to meet a group of boys. She said she was drunk and that one of the boys asked her to kiss him to give her more drinks.
She said “I had so much drink” and couldn't remember then if all her friends had left or were still around. She said the boy directed her towards the nearby park and into some bushes.
The girl said the boy told her to sit on a tree, and he was kissing her, and she didn't mind this. She said he then took out his penis and was grabbing her hand and putting it on his penis.
Not really aware
She said she was dozy because she was really drunk and wasn't really aware of what was happening. She said the boy then had sex with her. When asked to explain what she meant by this, the girl said that the boy put his penis inside her. She became upset and told the interviewing garda “this is getting harder and harder, this is just really difficult”.
She said after this the boy walked with her to a nearby road and then her mother arrived and took her home. She said she was screaming at her mother and saying horrible things to her and when she got home she tried to cut her wrists.
She said her step-father saw this and stopped her and then rang an ambulance. Her mother asked her about the boy she was seen with and asked if she had sex with him.
The girl said she told her mother “yeah but I didn't want to.”
The trial continues before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury.
