A trial in which two teenagers are charged with raping a girl in a car at Limerick Racecourse over the Christmas period in 2022 was only a matter of minutes into evidence today when one of the accused collapsed in the dock.
The two youths, who were aged 13 and 15 at the time of the alleged offence, are on trial at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork charged with raping a 16-year-old girl on 26 December 2022.
A third teenager, who was also 15 at the time of the alleged offence, is charged with aiding and abetting the two youths and falsely imprisoning the girl.
Today one of the teenagers accused of rape, who is now 15, appeared to be wincing with pain in the dock. He had been absent from court for the last three days for medical reasons and the trial did not proceed in his absence.
Within 20 minutes of the case resuming, the presiding Judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott was made aware that the youth was in pain. A break was set to be taken in the case.
However, before the jury were even told to leave the courtroom the defendant stood up and then collapsed to the floor. His two co-accused, members of his family, gardaí and court staff went to his assistance. Medical attention was then sought for the youth.
After a period of time the jurors were brought to another courtroom where Mr Justice McDermott explained the situation to them.
He apologised for the inconvenience caused and said whilst there was an obligation on him to ensure that court runs smoothly, on occasion "events intervene".
He asked the 11 jurors in the case to return to the court for the hearing of the case on Monday when "matters should be more clear".
Meanwhile, last week the trial was delayed by a day after one juror fainted and another experienced a cardiac event.
Dr Aoife Fanning was in the witness box on 18 March giving evidence of examining the complainant at a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in Limerick on the evening of 26 December 2022 when a juror became visibly unwell.
The court was cleared shortly before noon and Dr Fanning assessed and treated the patient. It was established that the juror had fainted. The case was adjourned until 2.15pm to see if the juror would be physically able to resume his duties.
However, when Mr Justice McDermott entered the courtroom that afternoon he was informed that another juror had experienced an emergency cardiac episode over lunchtime. The second juror was also initially assessed at the scene by Dr Fanning. The trial proceeded before a jury of nine women and two men having lost one juror.
Last week, Tom Creed, defence counsel for one of the accused youths, took to quoting the character of Claudius in Shakespeare's Hamlet when news emerged of the second medical episode on the same day.
Addressing Mr Justice McDermott he said: "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."
The trial previously heard evidence in the case from the complainant. She said that she met the boys for the first time on the date of the alleged offence when she went to Limerick Racecourse with her friends.
She said that she had agreed to get into a car in the car park. She said that the accused, who was 13 at the time of the alleged offence, took his pants down in the car and had sex with her without her consent.
She gave evidence that she told the teenager that she didn’t want to have sex with him. She recalled telling the youth "no". She also said that she told him she was having her period at the time.
She said after the first boy raped her, a second boy got in to the back seat of the car.
"What happened then was his friend jumped in and he did the same thing [rape her]."
All three boys have entered pleas of not guilty to their charges. The trial got under way on 11 March last.
