Jury hears complainant interview in case where two boys are accused of rape

*Some readers may find this content distressing*

The jury in the trial of a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy accused of raping a 16-year-old girl at a Christmas race meeting today heard an official garda recording of a specialist interview with the girl from shortly after the alleged incident.

This was played today at the Central Criminal Court and a further part of it will be played for the jury tomorrow. Mr Justice Paul McDermott sent the nine women and three men home for the evening with the warning: “In the meantime, don’t Google.” 

The two defendants - now aged 15 and 17 - are both charged with raping and sexually assaulting the teenager at a St Stephen’s Day race meeting at Limerick racecourse. A third boy is accused of aiding and abetting the first two defendants in carrying out these offences and he is also charged with falsely imprisoning the girl.

It is alleged that the contested incidents occurred in a car in a field carpark at Limerick racecourse at Patrickswell, County Limerick, on December 26 2023.

All three accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

Recorded interview

In the recorded interview, the complainant said of one teenager that inside a parked car at the races that afternoon, he took out his penis, put her hand on it and told her to give him a “hand job”.

“Two other boys got into the car. I don’t remember what I was feeling. I was too out of it. I was too drunk. Then his friend got in the back and he took down his pants and said, 'Go on, do it for me'. Like, 'do the same for me like you are doing for him', ‘give him a hand job’.

“I don’t remember if I did anything to the second guy. A lot of stuff was happening. I was in and out.

“I had a dress and they took it down. The two guys were doing it. I was like, I should go back to my friends. They were like, no, you’re fine, stay here.

“The guy on my right took my underwear off and said we would have sex. I said I was having my period and he said, no, you’re fine.

“They pulled my top down and then they started to pull my skirt up.

“He started having sex with me. He was just saying, no, you’re fine. He was putting his penis in my vagina. He did that for a bit. He went outside the car. He was done and he left. Don’t know if he ejaculated. Then his friend hopped into the back and did the same thing.

“He put his penis in my vagina. He just did it. I said I am on my period there… He said, you’re fine, you’re not… He pulled out and finished on my hand… He ejaculated on my hand.

“(Later with her friends) I was crying. I was upset over what happened. I was not making much sense. I said I was after having sex with (surname),” she said.

When the specialist interviewer asked how she knew the surname she said, one of the boys: “He had my phone. One of the guys added his user name to my phone. I remember seeing (surname).” 

The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

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