Man, 60s, tells judge in male rape case: ‘I felt shook, distraught — my head was rocking’
A man in his 60s described for a judge and jury being raped by another man when he was lying on the street tired after drink. At the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, the accused, 30, is charged with raping and sexually assaulting the older man after 1am on May 30, 2017.
Tim O’Leary, prosecuting, asked the complainant about his lifestyle before the alleged incident.
“You were drinking every day,” Mr O’Leary asked. The witness replied: “I was of course.”
That night, he said, he had a couple of drinks and went on to say he would drink cider and vodka. He later referred to buying three flagons of cider, consisting of a total of 12 pints.
“Were you drunk?” Mr O’Leary asked.
He replied: “I was under the influence, I was. I was so tired, I lay down on a blanket. The blanket was there [on the footpath].
“There was a hand touched me, inside my pants and everything. I was nearly asleep. I got very fidgety when that happened. It touched my penis. There was someone behind me.”
Asked why he did not react, he said:
Because I was half drunk. Penis went into my bum. I felt raw. Never happened me in my life. Never. Pants were pulled down on me.
Mr O’Leary asked: “Did you do anything when this happened?”
He replied: “No, I did not. I am not a violent man. I was always kind and honest. I got up off the blanket. I told [others] something happened. They called the guards then… I felt shook, distraught. My head was rocking all over the world.”
Cross-examining, Blaise O’Carroll, defending, asked: “Did you have a problem with the gargle throughout your adult life?”
The complainant agreed and said he suffered from depression and used alcohol to alleviate the pain. Asked if he could defend himself if someone did something outrageous to him, he said he would go off the rails.
Mr O’Carroll said: “He touched your penis and penetrated your anus with his penis.”
The complainant replied: “Yes, it won’t happen again.”
Counsel said: “Did you turn around and attack this person who did this horrible thing?”
He replied: “I did not. I did nothing.”
Mr O’Carroll said: “This extraordinary thing happened and you did nothing. You did not punch this person in the face?”
The complainant replied: “No, no, I am a quiet man.”
CCTV of the incident was shown to Mr Justice Paul McDermott and the jury.
A witness observing the CCTV on the night said she saw a man lying down behind the complainant, placing his hand down the front of the other man’s underpants, later pulling down his underpants and his own pants, and attempting sexual intercourse with the other man, whom she believed was sleeping.
A second witness gave similar evidence. The case goes into its third day today, in legal argument in the absence of the jury.
