A MAN has been convicted of raping a young woman in a Dublin apartment after a night out almost two years ago. John Noghayin (29), Cabra Park, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and sexual assault in May last year. The jury took almost four hours to return the verdict on the fifth day of the trial.
Mr Justice Barry White remanded Noghayin in custody pending sentence on March 14th. He declared him a sex offender and ordered the preparation of a victim impact statement.
The now 22-year-old victim told Gerard Clarke SC, prosecuting, that she met Noghayin at a restaurant after the club and accepted a lift home from his group.
She then agreed to a suggestion to go for a drink and arrived at an apartment where she sat down and kicked off her shoes because her feet were sore from dancing.
The woman said there were three men present and they spoke in a foreign language until two left and she was alone with the man.
She began to feel uncomfortable and started looking for her shoes but was pushed on to the apartment bed by Noghayin and sexually assaulted when she rolled on to the floor. She faked a panic attack, but he continued raping her and held down her hands when she punched him in the head.
She told Mr Clarke she thought she “blacked out” at this stage. She sat up, got dressed and indicated she wanted to go home, so he went outside and hailed her a taxi.
A taxi driver gave evidence that Noghayin flagged him down and asked to him to wait for someone. A woman got into the car and “just went haywire”. He said he had never picked up someone so upset.
Noghayin told Conor Devally SC, defending, that he had been acquainted with the complainant, that he spoke to her briefly on the night of the alleged incident at an African restaurant and accompanied her and a male friend to an apartment early that morning. He met two other friends at this apartment but did not stay long because there was nothing much to drink.
Noghayin said the complainant indicated she wanted to leave with him and the other male friend and the three went back to another apartment. Once the other man had left the premises, the complainant came over and lay with him on the bed. He said she showed no signs of being upset or nervous.
Noghayin said they started messing around and were “just playing together” on top of each other and “having a laugh”.
Dr Gouri Columb told Mr Clarke that she found bruising and redness on the woman’s arms when she attended the Rotunda Hospital’s sexual assault unit. She was “almost certain” these marks were consistent with finger grips.