A woman has told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that she was horrified, scared and shocked during an alleged sexual assault by a garda in a Co Wicklow station almost four years ago.
William Ryan, 38, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual assault and one of false imprisonment of the woman at Aughrim Garda Station in September 2020.
The woman told the court that she went numb and froze during the alleged incident, which she said happened after the garda told her that it was time to return a favour he had done for her in helping her to recover a car which had been seized.
She said that she had contacted Garda Ryan by text to ask if he was working, and had told him that her son's car had been seized by gardaí in Carlow the night before as he had been an unaccompanied driver.
The woman said that she was unsure what the protocol was, and wanted to see if her sister could collect the car because she was feeling unwell.
Garda Ryan immediately rang her back, she said, and told her he would be in the station at 9.45, would be getting a shower, and to call to the station some time after 10.15.
She said that he had told her he did not want to call to her house as she had been tested for Covid-19.
The woman said that, before the call ended, Garda Ryan had said: "Wear something tight", and that when she had replied: "Sorry?" he hung up.
Asked what she thought of that, she said: "I was, like, why would you say something like that?"
However, she said that she had been so worried about her son she had just "wanted to get it sorted".
After calling to the station, the woman said, he had invited her in through a side door - which was not the usual entrance - and after making a call to help her arrange for the collection of her car, Garda Ryan had asked her to "go over there".
She thought that he wanted her to get something from the other side of the room, and had been walking over when he had said "nice arse".
She said she she had been disturbed by the comment and had sat back down.
Garda Ryan, the woman said, wheeled over to her on his swivel chair to return the documents which she had given him, and when she stood to leave he slapped and grabbed her backside.
"I was horrified. I was, like, 'What the hell? He shouldn’t be doing anything like that.'"
The woman said that she had said: "Excuse me" to Garda Ryan, and had reminded him that they must stay two metres apart.
She said that she was wearing a mask as it had been during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Garda Ryan had walked ahead of her into the hallway, and she could not get past him to the door, she added.
She said that she had told him that she had to leave, and he had said, "Don’t go yet".
The woman said that he had then said something which she took to mean that he was sexually aroused, and she had told him that was none of her business and that he should tell his wife.
She said he had then said, "You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. I’ve done you a favour. Now its' time for you to repay the favour".
The woman told the jury: "I was like, 'Oh shit, this is not right'. I was scared, I was shocked. I had never been in that position before. He said, 'Come upstairs', and I said I don’t want to. I was numb, I just froze. It's hard to explain".
She said that the garda had told her he needed sexual relief, and that she did not understand why he was telling her this.
"I was shocked, scared. I did not know what was coming next. I just said, 'I want to go', and he said, 'No, don’t go'. I said, 'I have to collect the kids'. I said, 'I want to go'. I was, like, 'How am I going to get out of this?'
"I had my phone, and I said, 'I have a picture of me on holidays. I can send it to you', but he said, ‘No, no, no, don’t send it. Why would I want a picture when you’re standing in front of me?’ and I said, 'You’re not getting what is in front of you'".
The woman said that she had shown him a photograph of herself in a bikini, and that a nipple piercing was visible.
She said that he had pulled down her top and had felt both breasts while asking which one was pierced.
The woman said that Garda Ryan had asked her a number of times to go upstairs, but she told him she did not want to.
"He told me I would not have to do anything, and that I could just stand there with my back to him."
She said that she did not feel that she could leave the station, as he was standing in her way in the hallway, adding that he had been "fairly adamant" that he had wanted her to go upstairs.
The woman had agreed, but had asked him to go first as she thought that, if he did, she could get out of the station and run.
Before they went upstairs he had locked the side door, she said.
Asked how she had felt at that point, she replied: "It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had. The only way I can described it was flight, fight or freeze - and I froze".
She said that Garda Ryan had refused to go upstairs first, and instead put his hand on her shoulder and ushered her upstairs.
She said that he had asked her to leave her bag and phone outside a shower room before they had gone in.
The woman said that she could hear the garda behind her undo the zip on his trousers, and knew that he was "playing with himself" because he had told her what he was going to do.
"I could not believe this was happening. I just did not want to be there. It was like I was frozen in the moment," she said.
She went on to describe how Garda Ryan allegedly grabbed her hand and placed it on his penis, and that she pulled her hand back.
Breaking down in tears, she said that he then pulled down her leggings and sexually assaulted her.
During that time, she said, she remained fixated and focused on looking out the window, because: "I didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want to see, I didn’t want to know".
Afterwards, the woman said, the garda had made light conversation, and she was thinking, 'Where have you been for the last ten minutes?'. She said that she almost fell down the stairs trying to get out quickly.
She drove home and was "all over the place".
"I could not believe it had happened because I trusted the garda," she added. However, she said that she had to get herself "back into mammy mode" and collect children from school.
The woman said that when her husband phoned to see how she got on, she had told him that she had gotten the issue of the car sorted, but that it was "f***ing horrendous".
She said that she would tell him later, when he got home.
She said her husband knew her for a long time, and knew that she was upset when he got home.
She told him "almost everything" as there were children coming in and out, and she said: "He was, like, 'What the f**k? This shouldn’t have happened', and I said, 'I know, but he is a guard and they can basically do what they want'".
The following day she had a brief conversation with Garda Ryan after he pulled up alongside her in his garda vehicle.
He had asked if she had got the car back, and she had replied, but she said that she did not want to speak to him.
The woman said that, after receiving some advice, she had reported the matter to gardaí a month later.
In court, she identified a zip top that she had been wearing on the day and which she had given to gardaí.
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During cross-examination this afternoon the woman was asked by defence counsel Breffni Gordon why she had washed some of her clothes after the alleged assault, but had placed her zipped jacket that she believed contained the defendant's semen into a plastic bag.
She replied: "I just had a feeling this is what I should do".
Asked if there was something of a "forensic" interest in the jacket, the woman said that "something was telling me, my gut was telling me, that was what to do with it".
She said that she wasn't sure if she had told her husband about the jacket, and wasn't sure how long it had been in her wardrobe after that.
Asked about showing Garda Ryan a photograph as as strategy to get out of the station, Mr Gordon suggested that it was a very strange thing to do if under sexual attack.
The woman said that she just wanted to get out, and was giving him something so she could leave.
Mr Gordon said that the defence would say that she was willingly sharing the images.
She replied: "No".
She agreed that she had used a number of messaging apps and had used another name on one of them.
She agreed that she had previously texted Garda Ryan, but said it was never about anything personal.
She said she did not ever remember having contact with Garda Ryan on snapchat, and if he had received any of her snapchat pictures, it would have been by mistake, or that he had simply seen something posted to her page.
She agreed that it was not unusual for members of the community to have his number, as he was regarded as a friendly garda who would often assist with a range of things.
It was put to her that it was a very strange thing for a garda to say he was having a shower in the station before she came down, and the comment about "wear something tight", unless there was a particular context.
Asked if she had ever previously had any "banter" with Garda Ryan she said that she would not call it banter, but said that he had stopped her before while out for a run and had a conversation that had "nothing to do" with her.
The trial continues tomorrow.
