A MAN who has been held in custody for almost a year on a rape charge has been found not guilty by a jury. The verdict was delivered after 30 minutes deliberating following a nine-day trial.
The 23-year-old Czech national was discharged from custody by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy at the Central Criminal Court following his acquittal on two charges by the jury of eight men and four women.
He had denied raping and sexually assaulting a 24-year-old Galway woman on July 28th, 2007, and said in evidence that they had been enjoying consensual sex after she ran up to him in the street and kissed him, but he stopped immediately when she suddenly said "wait, I can't," and started crying.
The jury viewed CCTV evidence showing the woman run to the accused and kiss him after throwing her arms around him. The security footage from a bank then showed the couple move together in the opposite direction and evidence was given that the woman's friend had earlier bet her "a tenner" that she wouldn't kiss him. The woman's girlfriend said the complainant told her in a pub in a Galway town that she "wouldn't mind a shift " that night and asked her if she thought the man, who was with friends, was "good-looking".
She told Diarmaid McGuinness, defending, that she replied that she thought the accused was "nice looking" and said in jest: "I bet you a tenner you won't shift him." She said the complainant replied: "I bet I will."
The complainant's friend stood up in the witness box at the request of Mr McGuinness and exhibited to the jury how she encouraged the complainant to kiss the accused by cheering: "Go ahead, go for it."
The complainant then left her to speak to the accused and started kissing him after a few minutes. When she returned into the pub after she finished kissing him, they joked about the bet. He had told gardaí he had been introduced to the woman earlier that night and they kissed outside the pub for a few minutes. He told her he was leaving for his homeland the next day.
Later she "came up fast to me" and put her arms around him. He also put his arm around her waist and they kissed again. He said she then moved him behind a bank where her car was and the last thing she said to him before they started having sex was: "This is my car. It's not cold."