A 75-year-old widow has given a harrowing account of how she was raped twice in her Co Tipperary home by a man who warned her that she "would never walk the streets again" if she called the Garda.
The pensioner was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court in Limerick yesterday, where a 20-year-old Tipperary man is on trial for raping and robbing her on May 22nd, 2005.
The accused - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - has pleaded not guilty to having unlawful intercourse with the woman and to anally raping her on the same date.
He has further denied threatening to kill her and stealing money from her home.
Yesterday, on the first day of the trial, the elderly complainant in the case recounted the events of May 22nd, 2005.
The 75-year-old said she woke at about 3.20am to take some tablets. She said after hearing a noise in the kitchen she went downstairs where she was confronted by an intruder.
She asked him to leave but he came back in again through the back door, which she was unable to lock, the court heard.
The pensioner said she was then pushed on to an armchair by the intruder where she was raped.
After suggesting some other sexual indignities the woman told the court that her assailant anally raped her.
She said she tried to scream but she had a pain in her chest, the court heard. "He said there's nothing wrong with you, and that I was well able for it," she recalled.
When her assailant finally left the house with her purse containing about €100, he warned her not to call the Garda, the court heard.
"He said: 'I wasn't here, and if any gardaí are brought I'll be back and I'll really hurt you. You'll never walk the streets again'," she recalled.
The court heard that the woman got violently ill after the intruder left and that she sat up until 8am drinking tea and smoking before calling her daughter to tell her what had happened.
Counsel for the State Brendan Grehan SC said the real controversy in the case would be whether the accused person perpetrated the alleged offences.
He said that while the complainant had given a description of her assailant to gardaí, she was unable to identify the accused man in an identity parade.
Dr Tom Nyhan who is attached to the sexual assault unit at Waterford Regional Hospital gave evidence of examining the pensioner.
Dr Nyhan told the court that the woman, who is 5ft tall and weighs about six stone, had bruises to her neck and face when he examined her.
The trial resumes today before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury.