A MAN has gone on trial accused of ambushing a woman in a public toilet in Cork and subjecting her to half an hour of rape and sexual violence.
According to the 30-year-old complainant, the attacker wore a blue woman’s thong and slip during the alleged attack.
The 36-year-old foreign national has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 12 counts including rape, oral rape, anal rape, threats to kill, assault causing harm, sexual assault and false imprisonment during the attack on March 9th, 2010.
Prosecuting counsel Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC told the jury: “I don’t think at the end of the evidence you will be in any doubt that [the woman] was raped. The question is whether it was [the accused] or someone else.”
Counsel said the jury would hear about DNA linking the accused to the attack and that they would also see CCTV footage.
She said there would be evidence that blue underwear and other items were found in a search of the accused’s home.
The woman told Ms Ní Raifeartaigh that she was running errands and went to use the public bathroom. She was drying her hands when she was grabbed from behind and dragged into a cubicle.
She said her attacker was wearing a cap, sunglasses and dark clothes with a blue woman’s thong and a stained peach slip.
She said he told her to “pull down your pants or I’ll kill you”. Over the next 20 to 30 minutes she said he repeatedly raped her orally, anally and vaginally as well as sexually assaulting her.
She said at one point the attacker’s phone rang. He took it out and checked to see who it was but did not answer.
She said throughout the attack she pleaded with him not to kill her and he responded: “Shut up you bitch”. She said when he finished he told her to stay on the ground and to give him “a few minutes”.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of eight men and four women.