This article is from page 12 of the 2012-07-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A WEST Clare man has been found not guilty of the alleged rape of a teenager in the county two years ago.
A jury of six men and six women returned a unanimous not guilty verdict at the end of the six day trial before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Ennis last Wednesday.
Defence solicitor Patrick Moylan, of O’Kelly Moylan Solicitors, stated afterwards that the not guilty verdict returned by the jury was a just and appropriate one. “The accused has been vindicated”, he added.
It had been alleged that the man forced the then 16-year-old to have sex with him in the bedroom of her home in 2009.
It took the jury one hour and 51 minutes to acquit the 23-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court heard that forensic evi- dence of the accused’s DNA had been found on a bed sheet.
Prosecuting counsel, John Aylmer SC said that when interviewed by gardaí, the man denied ever being in the house.
He said the DNA evidence should remove “any reasonable doubt as to the complainant’s statement.”
The court that the man and the alleged victim first met in 2007 and that there had been “considerable” phone communication between them around the time of the alleged assault.
A complaint was first made to gardaí a week after the alleged assault. The court heard that threats had been made against the girl around the time of the alleged assault because of text messages she had sent to another man.
Mr Aylmer said the girl had been “petrified” and had attempted to put the rape to the back of her mind.
Defence Counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, said that the alleged victim had admitted lying in her original statement to gardaí. He told the jury that she had also tried to persuade a friend to lie to the gardaí.
Citing the example of former US president Bill Clinton, Mr Grehan said his client not the first man in history to lie about a sexual experience.
Mr Grehan said the fact that no “fresh complaint” had been made should set the jury’s “antennae twitching”.
He added, “The bottom line is that there is simply none of the indicators that a violent sexual assault took place, none whatsoever.”
He said the girl had falsely claimed that his client and others had stolen money from her house. Mr Grehan said she had admitted deleting text messages sent from the accused to her. He said the scientific evidence proved that ejaculation had taken place but not intercourse. He added, “I suggest there is a glaring gap in the prosecution’s case.” The jury returned a not guilty verdict.