Jury hears evidence from driver on day 9 of rape trial

The jury in the trial of four men accused of the rape and sexual assault of a 17-year-old has heard further details of interviews given by one of the accused to gardaí.

The driver of the car in which the young woman was taken to a remote location told gardaí he did not have sex with her but four others did.

He said she had consented to the sex and "did not say stop".

Four men are accused of rape and sexual assault. Three are also charged with false imprisonment.

A fifth man is not before the court. All have pleaded not guilty to the offences which are alleged to have occurred in the midlands. Those on trial were aged between 17 and 19 at the time.

The trial has previously heard the complainant got into a car with the men in the early hours of the morning after becoming separated from her friends on St Stephen's night.

The prosecution said she was driven to a location where she was raped by the defendants "one after another".

The driver who was 17-years-old told gardaí that afterwards he went back home but he could not sleep and then began to think "five guys and one girl".

He said he thought she "might come to her senses" and go to the police. He said she consented and that nothing really happened, "but you never know".

Gardaí asked him what he meant by her coming to her senses. He replied that she was in a car with five guys and that she had sex with four of them. He told gardaí he did not have sex with her.

Gardaí asked how the complainant was behaving. He answered that she was very drunk and that she did not know "what, where, how".

He said if he was guilty, then when he went to another country he would not have come back.

He said he came back because he was sure of his innocence.

In a subsequent interview with gardaí, he was asked if his DNA would be found on the complainant. He answered that it possibly would be found on her body but not inside her.

He said he touched the complainant's leg, that he touched her belly outside of her clothes and that he touched her breast when her top was down.

Gardaí asked what was happening when he touched her breast and if he had asked her could he touch her.

He answered that she had been finishing having sex with another person at the time and that he did not ask her if he could touch her.

On the way back to the town, the complainant was crying. He said he told the second and third accused to stop what they were doing.

He said he slowed down the car and asked if she was okay. He said she said she was okay.

In a subsequent interview, he was asked if anyone had taken pictures or videos and he said he did not remember.

He was also asked about text messages to another of the accused from the phone of someone who was in his house on the morning gardaí arrived at his home.

In one message the other accused is advised to "delete all your messages, pictures, everything". Another said "watch out they want to know who was with him last night".

The texter also tells the other accused man he did not know why the driver was taken away by gardaí.

Asked to explain why these messages were sent he said the other man was probably just thinking of him and believing he was in big trouble but he did not know anything about what happened and did not know the girl.

Asked why he had deleted messages from his own phone to the complainant about her passport he said he was "scared" that she would think he had stolen her passport and about what had happened that night in the car.

During cross examination, Brendan Grehan, defence counsel for the driver of the car asked the Member in Charge who is tasked with ensuring the welfare and rights of those in custody, if any consideration was given to the fact that the car driver was a child at the time.

The garda said she was aware of this but they had no special facilities for juveniles at that station.

Mr Grehan questioned if it was appropriate for him to be detained in a cell between interviews and interviewed for up to four hours at a time.

The garda said she regularly checked in on him during the interviews and would have asked if he was ok.

It was pointed out to her that she had noted he was crying in the cell but there was no written note if she had asked why he was crying.

The Garda said she had noted that she asked the accused if he wanted anything which would indicate she had a conversation with him.

She said it was obvious the reason he was crying was because he was in a Garda station which was an uncomfortable situation for anyone.

The trial continues tomorrow.