A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a garda in a Wicklow station has denied she engaged in consensual activity.
The woman was being cross examined by lawyers for 38-year-old Garda William Ryan who has pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual assault and one of false imprisonment of the woman at Aughrim Garda station in Co Wicklow in September 2020.
On her second day in the witness box, defence counsel Breffni Gordon told the woman that Garda Ryan will say that "what happened that day was consensual activity between two adults in private".
The woman has previously described feeling "shocked, scared and horrified" after the garda allegedly sexually assaulted her three times while she was in the station looking for assistance to retrieve a car that had been seized while her son was driving it.
During cross examination today Mr Gordon suggested to the woman that the conversation "was heating up" after she had asked Garda Ryan if he liked her snap chat photos and had shown him photos on her phone. She replied: "That didn't happen."
Mr Gordon put it to the woman that his client would say she spoke about her training and exercise regime and had stood up, turned and looked over her shoulder before tapping her own bottom. She replied "I definitely didn’t do that".
In her evidence yesterday the woman said she was grabbed and slapped by the garda as she stood up to leave the station.
She also denied that she had leaned over to get her phone from her bag in "a suggestive manner" or that she had been walking around the room asking if he liked what he was looking at before pressing against the garda as he worked at his desk.
Mr Gordon said his client would say he was "frozen on the spot, but not in a shocked way" and there was "sexual tension" in the room as she offered to "help him". The woman said it never happened, adding "definitely not".
She also rejected a suggestion from the defence that she had pulled up her top to expose her breast. She also rejected suggestions by the defence that she had followed Garda Ryan upstairs and was giggling before "fondling" him in the shower room of the station.
Mr Gordon said his client was "denying that you were falsely imprisoned and that whatever happened was consensual between two adults in private".
Earlier he put it to the witness that she could have left through the side door of the station by turning the handle. The woman replied that it sounded like Garda Ryan locked it, he said he was locking it and that she would have had to get past him to get to the door.
Asked why she did not use her phone if she felt under pressure or uncomfortable she said: "As I explained, something came over me, I froze."
'Flight, fight or freeze'
Asked where she got the expression "flight, fight or freeze" she said it was during counselling it was explained to her that in situations of trauma there are three things a person can do and that is why she froze.
It was put to her that the reason Garda Ryan had asked her to leave her phone and bag outside the shower room when they went upstairs was because she was someone who "was in the habit of sending images and he didn’t want a phone next nor near him".
She replied "not always". Earlier she agreed that it was possible that Garda Ryan had seen images she had posted to groups on snapchat but said she was not aware he was on snapchat and never saw his name on any groups that she posted to. However she said some people used the app under different names.
During re-examination by prosecuting counsel she said her snap chat feed was public and that she had never sent a picture directly to Garda Ryan.
Asked where she was when she gave her statement to gardaí she said she gave the statement in a hotel which was empty during the Covid pandemic. She said: "I haven’t been in a garda station since and I won’t either."
The trial continues on Monday
