A 22-year-old alleged rape victim told the Central Criminal Court she was sexually assaulted by a male family friend when she was about six years old. She told the jury of five women and seven men there was turmoil in her family after she revealed the sexual abuse when she was eight or nine.
Her allegations were reported to gardai but the matter did not reach the court. The woman agreed with defence counsel, Mr John Phelan SC, she was angry about that but did not hold any vendetta against the man.
She said because of the trouble her childhood revelation caused, she did not tell her parents she had been raped by a male neighbour in the early hours of Sunday, September 15th, 1996. She could not put them through the trauma. The woman said she eventually decided to tell her cousin and best friend over lunch on the Monday. A male friend rang gardai later and she then reported the incident.
It was the second day of the trial of her 25-year-old single neighbour, who has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman in a west Dublin suburb. The plaintiff agreed with Mr Phelan she kissed the accused man on the street near their homes within minutes of a chance meeting at about 3 a.m. though she knew him only to see before that. She found him quite attractive and went voluntarily with him in his car shortly afterwards.
More kissing and cuddling took place when he stopped at a park, and she allowed him to fondle her breasts though he was essentially a stranger to her, as counsel suggested. She said she had decided at that stage it was going no further. She said "No" and that should have been enough.
She agreed it was not normal to go off in a car at 3 a.m. with someone she really did not know. She knew she had been stupid to kiss him in the first place and go with him in his car.
The woman told Mr Phelan she went straight to bed and cried when the accused man left her home at 4 a.m. "I was angry with myself for getting into his car and felt stupid that I had, but just because I did that it was no reason to be raped," she said.
She agreed that rape was about the worst thing that could happen to a woman, but did not think of phoning gardai when she got into her house and did not tell her parents because she did not know how they would cope. "My father might have gone mad and wanted to kill the accused," she said.
She agreed she was alone in her house when she woke on Sunday afternoon and made contact with nobody. "I couldn't come to terms with it," she said. She decided she would ring her cousin the following day and tell her.
Pressed by Mr Phelan, the plaintiff said she did not recall replying to her cousin that she did not know if she would pursue the matter any further than telling her and some other friends.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Carney.