A man who denies raping a woman last December told his trial he had no idea why she memorised the registration number of his car afterwards. The 30-year-old Tipperary man agreed with Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that if she had been raped in the car as she claimed, it would have been important to remember the number. Gardai traced him the next day and he said she consented to sex.
The defendant, a father of one, has pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court to raping and sexually assaulting the Limerick woman, aged 28, on December 29th, 1996. They met in a Co Limerick pub earlier that night. He denied the woman had tried to run from his car and that he had dragged her on the ground back to his vehicle.
Earlier, he told his counsel Mr Brendan Grogan SC that they had talked about going dancing. He then felt it was too late for the disco. She did not answer when he said they could go for a drive or he could bring her home. He started to drive and stopped his car in a gateway. "I thought there was going to be sex involved or whatever," he said.
They kissed and fondled each other and at one point she got out of the car, saying she had to go to the toilet. When he went to ask what was wrong she became hysterical and yelled she would not get back into the car. He went to comfort her but she fell on the ground. He dragged her in an upright position back to the car intending to bring her home. Later she calmed down, got into the car and they had sex three times, he said. He agreed with Mr Grogan that the woman was drunk but he said she knew what she was doing.
Mr Vaughan Buckley asked if he reasonably believed a drunken woman who had become hysterical was consenting to sexual intercourse. He repeated that she had calmed down. He said mud stains on her trousers must have happened when she fell twice as he tried to get her back to the car.
The defendant agreed he had "to an extent" dragged her. Pressed on this, he said: "I dragged her back to the car with good intentions, not bad intentions as your question suggests." He denied raping her and said he drove her home later. She asked to meet him the next day. "I said I would not. I was feeling guilty as I had a partner and child at home," he added.
The trial continues today.