A 67-year-old businessman has described an allegation by a young woman that he sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager by performing oral sex on her after spiking her drink as “a fantasy”.
The man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, opted not to give evidence in his trial but the jury of 10 men and two women at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court heard of his denial when a memo of his interview with gardaí was entered into evidence.
The accused has denied a single charge of sexual assault on the woman at a location in Waterford on a date between January 1st, 2009, and December 31st, 2010, contrary to section two of the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act 1990.
On Friday, the third day of the man’s trial, investigating officer Det Garda Stephanie Walsh of the Waterford Protective Services Unit told how she and her colleague Det Garda Kelly Treacy arrested the accused on August 26th, 2022, for questioning about the alleged sexual assault.
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The young woman had alleged that the accused sexually assaulted her when she was 19 after spiking her drink when she called to his business premises to ask for a lift home. She says she woke up with her leggings and underwear around her ankles and the accused between her legs, performing oral sex on her.
She also alleged that the man texted her the next morning and asked her did she remember what had happened and when she said she didn’t and asked what had happened, he sent her a text with the word “Lickout” and he later showed her a photo of her vagina on his phone.
The trial had also heard from a friend of the complainant, who said that her friend had mentioned to her some time after the alleged assault that she had woken up to discover the businessman on top of her after sexually assaulting her and that he had texted her about it.
When Det Garda Walsh put the allegation to the accused at interview, he confirmed that he knew the young woman and always got on well with her but denied the allegation. “I don’t know what to say – it’s like a fantasy – I just don’t know what to say, a lot of it is off the wall.”
He also rejected the suggestion he had spiked the young woman’s drink. “It’s like someone is interpreting it in a certain way – to put a sinister twist. It’s completely untrue – you would think from this that I was a predator, I don’t have time to be a predator. I don’t want to be a predator.”
He said that it had scared him when the young woman had sent him a private Facebook message in 2021 accusing him of raping her and that was why he had not responded to her accusation. “Why me and why now, 12 years later?” he asked interviewing gardaí.
He also denied that he had asked the young woman for “a blow job” and “a hand job” when dropping her home some months before the alleged sexual assault. He did admit that while he may have fancied the young woman, she had wanted nothing to do with him romantically.
“I kissed her once on the lips – we both just laughed if off, it was nothing romantic, just stupid,” said the accused adding that was the only such interaction that he ever had with the woman. The complainant had earlier denied that any such kiss ever happened between them.
The complainant had also alleged that she was confronted by the accused’s wife and daughter about a month after the alleged assault after they discovered the images of her vagina on his phone, but the man’s daughter said that never happened. The case continues.
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