A 29-year-old Dublin man told a jury he did not rape a nurse he met some hours earlier in a Temple Bar disco but had consensual sex with her in his car in a quiet wooded area.
He claimed she agreed to go for a drive with him and they had consensual sex until she started crying. She told him it was because she had been sexually abused by her father as a child.
The accused said he stopped immediately, adding that the alleged victim suggested they might try to have sexual intercourse again in a few weeks.
He said she apologised to him but he told her she was all right. They discussed the nature of the abuse she claimed to have suffered before they dressed and returned 29-year-old man who denies raping the then 23-year-old student nurse at Kilakee Road, Rathfarnham on April 25th, 1997. The woman had told the jury earlier that her claim to have been sexually abused was a false one and that she made it to get him to stop having sex with her. The accused agreed with his counsel, Mr George Birmingham SC, that the woman was right in her evidence when she said he used strong language about anyone who would sexually abuse a child.
He advised her to get counselling because he had previous experience of an acquaintance who had been sexually abused and was helped by counselling. The accused said in further reply to Mr Birmingham there was no question of the woman being in the car against her will.
He said he was shocked when the gardai came to his home and told him about her allegation. She had willingly agreed to go for a drive with him. The accused described how he began sexual activity and she helped him undress her. She asked if he had a condom and he used one from a packet he bought at a petrol station earlier.
They had only just started having intercourse when she began crying and made her sexual abuse claim. They exchanged names and addresses and information on their work before parting outside her residence. He gave her a false telephone number but arranged to telephone her the next afternoon. She gave him a false surname.
The hearing continues before the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, and a jury of eight women and four men.