A man has told a jury that he was “frozen to the spot” when he awoke to find his then-teacher sexually assaulting him.
The 59-year-old accused, who can't be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of attempted anal rape and eight counts of sexual assault, on dates between March 1991 and November 1997, at locations in Co Dublin.
The jury heard that a then 18-year-old man had stayed at his teacher's home in November 1997. The young man assumed that he would be sleeping on a couch, but he was told when he reached the home that he could sleep on the bedroom floor of his teacher.
The man told Anne Marie Lawlor, SC, prosecuting, that when he asked if there was a pillow or a duvet he could use, his teacher suggested, “Why don’t you just sleep on the bed?” The young man thought this was an “unusual situation, as he was my teacher and I was his student”, but “I just went along with it".
The young man removed his trousers and got in to bed wearing his top and loose boxer shorts. The bedside light was turned off and the room was very dark. It took the young man about 30 minutes to get to sleep. He woke a short time later to a “rustling in my boxers”.
The young man first believed that the accused might be touching him in his sleep. He said: “I couldn’t understand what was happening. I flinched and it stopped.”
A short time later he once again felt touching. The accused then shuffled down in the bed and it is alleged that his mouth made contact with the young man’s penis.
Ms Lawlor asked the man how he reacted to this and he replied: “It was like an out-of-body experience and I just froze.”
He said: “You would think your reaction would be to get out of there, but I just froze to the spot.” The young man flinched again and the accused lay back down beside him on the bed.
It is alleged that approximately 30 seconds later, the accused once again shuffled down in the bed and tried to make contact with the young’s man's penis with his mouth. The man is unsure if contact was made as he jumped out of the bed. The man said to the accused: “What the hell are you doing?” and began to dress in a “frantic fashion”. The man described being in “total shock” and “incredibly upset”.
Ms Lawlor asked the man if he had consented to what had occurred and he replied, “Absolutely not.”
The jury heard the accused was standing in front of the bedroom door and asked the young man “not to go”. The young man said he “wanted to punch him, but I’m not a violent person”. The man described grabbing the accused by the shoulders and throwing him onto the bed. He then left the bedroom and ran out of the man’s house.
When the man arrived home, he described being “frantic”. He banged on the front door and fell in the door when his mother opened it. The young man told his mother that he had been raped. He then told the court that he understood that was not what had actually happened. He described wanting to shower as he “felt disgusting”.
The young man’s mother tried to calm him down and convinced him to get some sleep. While he was sleeping, his mother made contact with the school and told the principal that “something serious had happened.”
The following morning, the school principal came to the home of the young boy. He instructed the young man to write down everything that had happened the night before.
Ms Lawlor asked the man what he did with this statement he had written and he said he had given it to his school principal. She asked when was the next time he saw this statement and he said when the gardaí showed it to him in 2019.
The jury heard that in 2019, gardaí made contact with the man and he went on to make a statement regarding the alleged offence. Prosecuting counsel asked the man why he had not made a statement sooner, to which he replied, “I didn't feel that I was mature enough to come forward.” He also said: “I thought I was the only one it happened to and that it would be my word against his,” and “I didn’t want to relive it.”
The court heard that the man decided to make a statement in 2019 as he was more mature. He said, “Mentally, I was much stronger and I had a greater standing on doing the right thing.”
Mr Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, asked the man on the night in question if he had had a few drinks, to which he replied: “Yes, two or three drinks.”
Counsel said he had stated in his interview that he wasn’t “much of a drinker”, which the man agreed with. He said there was no evidence of anyone plying him with drinks on that night in question, to which the man agreed with.
Mr O’Higgins put it to the man that when he initially woke to feel the rustling in his boxers, his first thought was that the accused was doing this in his sleep - to which the man replied, “Yes, initially.”
The trial continues before Mr Justice Alexander Owens and the jury on Monday.
It is expected to last around four weeks.
