An 18-year-old woman denied in the Central Criminal Court yesterday that she consented to sexual activity with a Cork taxi-driver. A 42-year-old taxi man has denied rape, attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault. The charges refer to two alleged incidents on July 4th, 1996.
The woman, who was a passenger in the taxi, had told the court the defendant twice tried to rape her after her date got out of the car at his home.
Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, suggested to her that his client would claim she had actively engaged in kissing and fondling but that they did not have sex. She replied: "He is going to lie, isn't he? If I wanted sex I would have got out with my date."
Mr O'Carroll put it to her that there was a difference between two statements she made about the two alleged incidents in the taxi. He said she told gardai she had struggled with the man, and then said she had not. The woman said she had been upset when she made the first statement.
She said she had not struggled when the man attempted to have sex with her the first time. He had driven to a dark area and she did not know where she was. The second incident was near her home, and she did struggle.
The trial continues today before Mrs Justice McGuinness and a jury.