A Co Limerick woman told a jury yesterday she regained consciousness during a rape attack when her assailant used a cigarette to burn her fingers.
The woman, who is in her 50s, said her attacker had forced his fingers down her throat, rendering her unconscious. Before he left her, he commented: "I'm a happy man for three months and I hope you are happy tonight."
She told the Central Criminal Court she was set upon and dragged into a laneway on a "dirty and wet" December night as she was returning to her home.
When Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC asked if she was sure she had been raped, the woman replied: "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't". She denied she had been a heavy drinker or that she had fallen into ditches on previous occasions.
The woman was giving evidence on the first day of the trial of a 27year-old man, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault on the night of December 21st-22nd, 1993.
Earlier, Mr Michael Durack SC told the jury it would probably be satisfied the woman was raped and brutally assaulted. The question was whether the accused was the man who committed the rape.
The woman told Mr Durack that a man hailed her by name as she was walking home. The use of her name shocked her as his voice was not a local one.
Suddenly he grabbed her hair from behind and dragged her into a laneway. She screamed and he forced his fingers down the back of her throat, rendering her unconscious.
She said her next recollection was the man burning her fingers with a cigarette to wake her. He was kneeling on her stomach.
He had his pants down and wanted her to "play" with him using her hands. Her own clothes were covered in mud.
She said the man wanted her to perform oral sex on him and she got sick. "He said he would break my two arms and legs if I didn't do it."
She told Mr Durack she heard a car and screamed hoping her daughter, whose house was only 50 yards away, would hear her. He again stuck his fingers down her throat and said he wouldn't take them out if she didn't stop screaming.
He told her if she would not do it that way she had to do it the "proper way" and he raped her while she was semi-conscious. He warned he would come back and choke her if she contacted gardai, she said.
Afterwards he again put to fingers down her throat and she lost consciousness. He started banging her head off a wall to check she had died, she alleged. Afterwards, she went to a neighbour's house and raised the alarm.
The trial continues.