A 20-year-old woman told a jury she was raped by a neighbour in his car early one morning shortly after she first spoke to him and kissed him on the street near her home.
Her 25-year-old neighbour has denied rape in a west Dublin suburb on September 15th, 1996. The trial, before Mr Justice Carney in the Central Criminal Court, heard from the woman that she was walking near her home at about 3 a.m. when the defendant came up to her. He asked for a light and kept saying he was starving.
They stopped near both their homes and she said "goodbye". However, he asked her to "hang on" and tried to continue their conversation. He then kissed her and she felt fine and kissed him back.
By that stage she liked him. He said to her not to go home and that they would go to a certain place to get something to eat. She said no but he got his car from his driveway and pulled up beside her.
The alleged victim told Ms Miriam Reynolds SC, prosecuting, that she got into the car. She knew the man to see and had begun to like him in their short talk.
Yet, instead of driving to the designated area, he went in a different direction and stopped outside a west Dublin park.
She was still "feeling fine" when they resumed kissing for about 10 minutes but was "in two minds" when he opened her blouse, undid her bra and was touching her breasts. She decided she was not going any further.
"I was now beginning to feel a little uncomfortable and after a few minutes I said I wanted to go home. I told him I didn't want to do this and he said `all right'. "
The alleged victim described how she said she wanted to go home and how she was raped.
"I was just praying that someone would come along," she said. "He then got back into his seat and said: `that was great, wasn't it?', before starting to drive off."
The hearing continues.