A MOTHER has told a Central Criminal Court jury that she was raped by a man she had been dating after she had told him she did not want the relationship to continue.
The Dublin woman said the accused called to her home the morning after she had broken up with him and begged her not to end the relationship before he picked her up, carried her to her bedroom and raped her.
She said during the attack she was panicking and could not breathe because she was struggling so much.
“I thought I was going to die if I didn’t stop struggling with him,” she told prosecuting counsel Conor Devally SC (with Caroline Biggs).
The 38-year-old west Dublin man has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman at her home on September 9th, 2004.
The complainant said that after the rape the accused lay on top of her for about two minutes but she said it felt like a lifetime.
He then got up, got dressed, sat down on the bed beside her and told her: “It’s over now, I’ll wait with you until the gardaí arrive”.
He left her house but came back a few minutes later and kept knocking at her door while she called some friends and asked for assistance.
The complainant told Mr Devally that she had been dating the accused for about five weeks during which time they had a “physical relationship”.
She said the day before the alleged rape they had gone for a walk together and afterwards they had kissed and cuddled in his car and he had tried to “take it further” but she refused.
“I said I was not going to do it in a car and he should have more respect for me,” she said before she asked him to take her home. She said the accused got upset because he had thought she was not attracted to him.
When they got to her home she got out of the car and told him she wanted “to call it a day”.
She told Mr Devally that the accused knew that this meant she wanted to end their relationship and he was upset by that.
“He said please don’t do this to me and he said we were really good together,” she said.
She said the next morning the accused called at her house and begged her not to break up with him.
“I was sitting on the couch and he kneeled down on the floor in front of me and begged me not to terminate the relationship,” the complainant said before she said she made it clear that they were not getting back together and told him to leave. She said the accused then picked her up and brought her upstairs.
She struggled with him, asking him to bring her back downstairs but he laid her down on her bed before he raped her.
She said the accused put his hand over her throat and when asked by Mr Devally had she struggled with him she replied “absolutely yes”.
The trial continues.