A complainant has told the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting six young men that he was “frozen solid in the bed”, during the alleged encounter with the defendant.
The accused man has pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted anal rape and eight counts of sexual assault in relation to six complainants on dates between March 1991 and November 1997 at locations in Co Dublin.
The man was in his 30s at the time of the alleged offences, while the six complainants were then aged between 17 and 24.
The sixth complainant in the case, now aged 48, began giving his evidence. The accused faces one count of attempted anal rape and one count of sexual assault in relation to this complainant.
The sixth complainant told the jury that he developed a close friendship with his teacher when he was in transition year.
“I completely and utterly trusted him [the accused]. I would have trusted him with my life. I had nothing to fear; he was a great school teacher, and I had no issue spending the night in his house.”
He told the jury that he had been to the accused’s house on two previous occasions, but on this particular occasion, he was due to stay the night as it was late. The witness said he was in fifth year at the time.
Asked by Ann Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, where he believed he would be sleeping, he said in the spare room of the accused’s house.
The witness said the accused told him “there was no need”, and “to jump in here”, and the young man got into the opposite side of the accused’s bed.
He told the jury that he was uncomfortable with this and planned to go into the spare room once the accused fell asleep.
Ms Lawlor asked the witness if he fell asleep, and he said he did.
He then told the trial: “I woke up to his head down on my crotch giving me a blowjob.”
In my head, I kept saying stop, stop, stop.
Counsel asked him to describe this as best he could. He said he was “scared sh**less and frozen solid in the bed”.
He continued: “In my head, I kept saying stop, stop, stop.” Asked by counsel if he had consented to this, he said, “absolutely not”.
The witness said he was unsure how long this went on for and turned around to lie on his stomach. He said he believed that by lying on his stomach, this would stop what was happening.
He then told the court that the accused “climbed up on top of my back”. He described feeling the accused’s head on his shoulders and his stubble, and said the accused was trying to manoeuvre himself into a position to “do something”.
The witness said his “face was in the pillow”, “my heart was racing, and I was frozen”.
The witness was asked if he had given consent to any part of what had happened when he turned onto his stomach, and he replied, “no”. He said he did not know “if it went on for three minutes or three hours”, and had no memory of leaving the house.
'Blocking it out'
Earlier on Thursday, during his cross-examination, defence counsel Michael O'Higgins SC said to the fifth complainant that he had made a reference in his evidence to “blocking it out” and asked what he meant by this.
He replied: “I said yesterday that I blocked it out, and this is probably not the correct term. I had nothing else to do with him. I was going to college and in my head, I just drew a line in the sand.”
Mr O'Higgins put it to the witness that in his first statement, he had not mentioned being “pinned against a wall”. The witness explained that his first account was a summary of what happened, and later in his statement to gardaí, he gave a detailed account of what he alleges happened.
Counsel read from the complainant's statement, which said, “more and more, it is coming back to me now,” and suggested that the witness's memory was only coming back during this interview with gardaí.
The witness replied: “I do remember giving this interview and how emotionally wreaked I was. I’m sure I don’t communicate perfectly all of the time, especially under stress.”
Mr O'Higgins put it to the witness that the account he had given to gardaí was not reliable and that there was no sexual contact between him and the accused, to which the witness replied: “You are wrong.”
The trial continues before Mr Justice Alexander Owens and the jury.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
