Teenager "frozen" after sexual assault by garda, court is told

A GARDA based in Co Laois has denied he sexually assaulted a teenage boy after a sporting event almost four years ago.

A GARDA based in Co Laois has denied he sexually assaulted a teenage boy after a sporting event almost four years ago.

The alleged victim, now 21, told defence counsel Mr Gerard Clarke SC he was "preaching a load of shite" during cross examination at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The man also agreed he had spent some time in a psychiatric hospital in the year after the alleged offence, but denied the reason he went there was charges of daubing offensive slogans on a house.

He claimed he went to the hospital after slashing his wrists and taking an overdose. He was concerned about being charged in connection with the slogans but was not depressed.

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His depression arose from what he alleged the accused did to him, and his resultant drinking, he said.

The man earlier told the court the accused put his hand on his penis when they were both in a double bed.

The 43 year old serving garda denies sexually assaulting the plaintiff on the night of May 20th-21st, 1993.

The alleged victim told prosecuting counsel Mr George Birmingham it had been arranged for him to spend the night with the garda, whom he knew well. After the sports event they went with others to a pub in a Laois town and then to the house.

The accused told him to get into a double bed and then joined him. He claimed he pushed the garda's hand away, but the assault was repeated.

"Words couldn't explain how I felt. I was shocked and frozen by it," the man told Judge Kevin Haugh and the jury.

Cross examined by Mr Clarke, he said he made a statement in 1989 while he was under medication in the psychiatric hospital.

Mr Clarke put it to him he had named a different pub in his statement than the pub he gave in evidence. "I might have got my wires crossed," the man said.

The case is continuing.