Man was ‘shocked’ by wife’s Christmas Day rape claim

A man accused of raping his wife on Christmas Day in 2003 has told a court that the two had consensual sex and he was shocked when she accused him the next morning of raping her.

The 44-year-old Dublin man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts of rape, one count of oral rape and one count of anal rape of his then partner on December 25th, 2003.

The trial had previously heard the man allegedly raped the woman on the couch after putting their children to bed on Christmas night.

Judge Patrick McCarthy has completed his charge to the jury in the trial, and the jury of eight women and four men are expected to retire to consider their verdict on Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, the man took the stand and told Patrick Gageby SC, defending, that he had had consensual sex with his wife that night.

He said they had both had several drinks that evening and were drunk.

He said that when he came downstairs after putting the children to bed, his wife was lying on the couch. He told the court they started “kissing and fondling”.

He said he sought to have oral sex, but the woman said no and they had vaginal sex instead.

When asked if he had anal sex with her, the man replied: “Not that I was aware of.”

He said that, the following morning, his wife was cooking breakfast in the kitchen when she said to him: “Do you know what you did last night?”

“She then proceeded to tell me that I raped her,” the man told the court.

“There was no massive argument. I just went into pure shock, I think.”

The man eventually left the couple’s home. He returned for some time but then left again.

The couple legally separated in 2007.

The man said that he had sexual relations with his wife on a number of occasions after the alleged incident.

He said that, after he returned to the family home, he eventually moved back into the marital bed.

Under questioning

Prosecution barrister John O’Kelly SC said the man’s assertion that he moved back into the marital bed was a “very recent invention” and “untrue”.

The man denied this was the case.

Mr O’Kelly put it to the man that, on Christmas Day, he raped his wife and told her, “I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time”, before anally raping her.

He submitted that the man also told her: “You’re my wife.”

“Those words sum up what your intent of having sex with [your wife] on this night was,” Mr O’Kelly said.

“No,” the man replied, saying that they were a married couple who had “marital intercourse”.

Mr O’Kelly said: “Unfortunately, on this night, your wife didn’t want sex and she made it very clear that she didn’t want sex. She had a difficult day.”

“The only ‘no’ I heard was when I looked for oral sex,” the man said.

“I don’t know why she made those allegations,” he said.

Mr O’Kelly said the relationship broke down because of what happened on Christmas Day.

“On that Christmas Day, you raped her and that changed everything,” he said.

“No,” the man replied.