A KERRY man has been acquitted at the Central Criminal Court of raping an Australian tourist.
The 25-year-old man had pleaded not guilty to rape and two counts of sexual assault on the woman in Kerry on July 8th, 2009. Two counts of sexual assault had previously been withdrawn from the jury.
He was found not guilty on all counts by a jury after less than two hours of deliberations and a six-day trial.
In the trial, the complainant denied a suggestion by Anthony Sammon SC, defending, that she had made up the rape allegation because she was embarrassed about having casual sex with the man.
It was the prosecution’s case that the man met her in a local pub while she was on holiday in the area. Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting, alleged that he walked her back to her hostel, and then offered to show her his old school.
When they got there it was claimed he pushed her down and raped her. The complainant said when it was finished she got up and started walking away but that he told her “you’re not going anywhere, you’ll tell, you’ll tell”. She said he was talking to himself under his breath and “going a bit crazy” and when she saw a passing taxi she flagged it down. When the driver dropped her at the hostel she told him: “You might have just saved my life.”
She agreed with Mr Sammon that she and the accused had kissed briefly on the way to the green area, but said she could not recall another kiss outside the hostel which was witnessed by her friend. She also agreed that she went with her friends to a tourist attraction the next day only because she did not want to be on her own. The woman’s travelling companion gave evidence that she saw her kiss the man outside their hostel.
During interviews with gardaí, the man denied raping or sexually assaulting the woman and said the sex was fully consensual.