A JURY in a Dublin rape trial has been told that the complainant’s mobile phone was returned to her on a supposedly temporary basis by gardaí more than 18 months after the alleged assault took place, but she subsequently lost it.
Det Garda Janet Walsh told Conor Devally, defending, that the complainant’s mobile phone, which had been secured by gardaí as evidence, had been handed back to her after she requested access to numbers saved on it.
After failing to return the phone in a timely fashion, the plaintiff told gardaí she had lost it.
The 23-year-old accused man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a charge of rape and a charge of criminal damage to a door and wall at the complainant’s home on November 18th, 2006. He had previously dated her for about four weeks.
In a statement to gardaí, the accused said that after the complainant texted him on the morning of the alleged assault, asking what the situation was between them, he texted back: “I’ll text you when I find out how I even got there. Sorry about last night”.
Det Garda Walsh agreed with Mr Devally that the accused handed his mobile phone to gardaí after giving a statement, and at no point asked for it to be returned.
She agreed with Mr Devally that both the solicitors for the accused and the State had made arrangements to examine each mobile phone in July 2008.
Det Garda Walsh told Mr Devally that the complainant handed her phone to gardaí after she had given a statement on the morning of November 18th, 2006. She agreed the complainant showed her a text message on the phone sent by the accused shortly before 11am that morning.
Det Garda Walsh agreed with Mr Devally that the text message was “isolated”, and that she noted there were no sent messages saved to the memory of the complainant’s phone.
She told Mr Devally that the complainant came to the Garda station on June 4th, 2008, and asked whether she could retrieve numbers from the mobile phone she had given to gardaí on the morning of the alleged assault.
Det Garda Walsh agreed that after the phone was turned on, the complainant told her that she did not remember the PIN code necessary to access the phone and that she had the number somewhere at home.
She agreed with Mr Devally that had the complainant remembered the PIN code, she would have arranged for her to take the contact numbers from the phone in the presence of gardaí.
Det Garda Walsh told Mr Devally that she gave the phone to the complainant and instructed her to bring it back to the station as soon as she had retrieved the necessary numbers from it.
She subsequently tried twice to contact the woman to retrieve the phone, but got no response.
After gardaí searched her apartment and her mother’s home for the missing phone, she contacted Det Garda Walsh to say she had placed the missing phone in her handbag, but had lost both. She did not report the theft of either the mobile phone or the handbag.
The detective said she was embarrassed at having to tell legal officers, who had prearranged a date to examine both mobiles, that one of them had gone missing.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury.