A US jury has found 39-year-old Dublin firefighter Terence Crosbie guilty of raping a woman in a Boston hotel room he shared with a colleague.
The jury of six men and six women found Crosbie guilty of raping the 29-year-old woman in the lead up to St Patrick's Day weekend, after four-and-a-half days of arguments and after more than 15 hours of deliberation.
The incident happened in the early hours of 15 March 2024.
The conviction comes after a previous trial ended in a hung jury.
Crosbie and the victim testified in both trials, with Crosbie denying that he ever touched the victim, and insisting that his bed was empty when he returned to his hotel room.
Crosbie had travelled to Boston with more than ten of his colleagues to march in the St Patrick’s Day parade.
The victim testified that she met Crosbie’s colleague, Liam O’Brien, at The Black Rose bar, and went with Mr O’Brien back to the Omni Parker hotel.
She said she was not aware that Mr O’Brien had a roommate and did not remember meeting Crosbie briefly in the room when she and Mr O’Brien entered.
She said she and Mr O’Brien had consensual sex, and then she went to the bathroom and left the light on. She said when she returned, Mr O’Brien was spread out in the bed like a "starfish" and snoring, so she testified that she crawled in the other bed and went to sleep.
She said she woke up to a man she did not know raping her, telling her that she "liked it" and that his "friend," Mr O’Brien was "a loser".
"What are you doing? Stop," she told Crosbie, according to testimony. "He was continuing to put his weight on me....he didn’t stop," she said.
She testified that she was able to manoeuvre her feet to the ground, get her clothes and make it out of the room before texting a friend and immediately going to a hospital and reporting what happened.
Crosbie’s defence team repeatedly questioned the woman’s account of events, citing her alcohol consumption, and noted that when she reported the assault she could not remember Mr O’Brien’s first or last name, initially reported her assailant was about her height - when Crosbie is significantly taller - and did not remember the assailant having tattoos.
"I didn’t touch her," Crosbie testified.
Crosbie testified that he was kissing another unidentified woman at The Black Rose, but stated that he declined her invitation to go home with her, countering the state’s argument that Crosbie was out on the prowl, and recently dejected, the night of the assault.
He said he was in the room when the victim and Mr O’Brien arrived, that he left to wait in a chair in the hallway, and when he returned the lights were out and the bed was empty. He testified that he heard a woman collecting her clothing and leave, but he did not engage with her in any way.
DNA evidence revealed the presence of two male contributors on the complainant, one of whom was Mr O’Brien. The identity of the second contributor could not be confirmed, a point emphasised by the defence.
Prosecutors pointed out that when Crosbie was initially questioned by police, he inquired as to if the victim was alleging someone had "pinned her down" in the bed without having any previous knowledge of the details of her allegation.
Assistant district attorney Erin Murphy argued that the complainant’s memory gaps were not "meaningful". She insisted Crosbie’s testimony was "scripted" and asked jurors to "think critically".
Defence attorney Daniel C. Reilly argued that the complainant was "unreliable" and reminded jurors of "how high a burden" proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt is.
After the verdict was announced a woman identified as Crosbie’s wife, whose presence was consistent throughout both trials, put her head in her lap and began to cry.
Crosbie’s sentencing hearing is set for 30 October.
He faces up to 20 years in prison.
