A LEITRIM WOMAN has told a trial that she awoke twice from a drunken blackout to find two men raping her.
The alleged rapes took place at the end of a party in a flat in a Co Leitrim town.
The woman has told the trial at the Central Criminal Court that she later heard male voices outside the door of the bedroom saying “you fucked her too so you can get her out”.
The two Leitrim men have pleaded not guilty to rape at a place in the county on a date in 2017. The second accused also denies a charge of oral rape of the woman. The defendants and the complainant are now aged in their 20s.
The defendants have said that they had consensual sex with the woman on separate occasions during the night. The second man said he went in some time after the first man had come back out to the party and the woman gave him “a blowjob”.
In her direct evidence the woman told the jury that she and the defendants knew each other and had attended a birthday party in a pub earlier that night.
She and others went to the defendants’ flat for a party. She had two puffs of cannabis and felt sickly but was enjoying the party and “wasn’t going to stop drinking”.
The woman said she remembers sitting at the kitchen table and the next thing she remembers was being in a bedroom with the first accused having sex with her.
She said she told him to stop but he carried on and began to strangle her throat. She said she scratched at him to get him off but he carried on.
The complainant said she could hear laughter. She blacked out and when she came to again the second accused was grabbing her head and “forcibly” putting his penis into her mouth.
She said she didn’t remember this man leaving and she just remembered waking up alone. She heard males voices discussing how to “throw her out”, and heard someone say “you fucked her too so you can get her out”.
She texted her boyfriend to come get her and when he arrived in his car she told him she had been raped.
Cross-examination
Under cross-examination she said she doesn’t remember spending much of the night in the company of the first accused or engaging in physical contact with him.
She denied asking this man in the pub if he had condoms and if he would have sex with her later. She denied telling him during sex that she loved him.
The woman agreed that she felt demeaned by words she heard being said outside the bedroom and agreed they made her feel “worthless, there to be used”.
She said she felt angry the next day when she texted him “fuck off” via Snapchat after he texted the word “soz”.
She denied having consensual sex with both men and denied that she was “excited” by the prospect.
The trial, which began last week, continues before Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury.
No interaction
The woman told prosecuting counsel, Eilis Brennan SC, that she had chatted tot the first accused in the pub earlier that evening but had no interaction with the second accused.
She said she as she left the pub with her friend she linked arms with one of the second accused as they walked up the main street.
She said her friend returned to the pub to buy alcohol and as she waited with the first accused, he kissed her but she pushed him away. She said she wasn’t sure if she kissed back but she said no to the kiss.
The woman said when her friend returned they went to the flat.
She asked if there was anywhere she could leave her bag so it would be safe and left it in the first man’s bedroom. She said her friend asked what she was doing and she told her she was just putting her bag in the room.
She said at the house someone was playing music and there was people she knew from school. She said she chatted to the first accused.
The witness agreed with prosecuting counsel that she had two puffs of cannabis at the party. She said she felt quite queasy and sickly.
She said she hit her head at one stage off the wall but got up again. She said she thought she was going to be sick but ended up just gagging.
“I was fine, I wasn’t going to let it ruin my night,” she said, “I wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t going to stop drinking.”
She said her friend became emotional and rang her brother who came to collect her. The woman agreed with counsel she was enjoying herself and did not want to leave the party.
She said she was not sure what time it was and had no concept of time.
The woman said she went back into the kitchen area and was sitting at the table but could not recall what she did. She said the next thing she recalled after that was being in one of the first defendant’s bedrooms with him having intercourse with her.
She said he hit her across the face a couple of times and applied pressure to her throat because she was telling him to stop. “He strangled me basically with one hand” she said.
She said he let go eventually and she gasped for breath. She said she was telling him to stop and tried to scratch him to get him off. She said he did not stop throughout all this. She said she could hear laughter but did not see anyone.
She told Ms Brennan, that she did not know how it stopped as she blacked out.
Second accused
The woman said she next recalled being naked on her side in the bed with the second accused. She said he turned her over, grabbed the back of her head and put his erect penis into her mouth.
Brennan asked if he was doing it forcibly and the woman replied he was and she could not get away or back out. She said it felt like it went on for ages and she had to swallow after he ejaculated in her mouth as he did not take his penis out of her mouth.
“I felt really betrayed. I could not believe it happened,” she said, “I thought they were my friends. I was obviously wrong.”
The witness said she did not remember the second accused leaving the room and next recalled waking up in the bed alone with the bedroom door closed.
She said she could hear people talking outside and said they were talking about who was going to throw her out. She said she rang her boyfriend to come for her.
The woman said she left the apartment when her partner texted her that he was outside. She was unable to get out through a security gate and went back to the flat and kicked on the door to get someone to let her out.
The first defendant came out and opened the gate. She said she told her partner as they were driving home in the car that she had been raped.
She said he wanted to go back but she just wanted to go home. She said she went to bed and took the morning after pill before she went to work the next day.
The woman said after she got home that night she went to Accident and Emergency with her partner. “I wanted to get a rape test but did not know there were special units,” she said.
She told Ms Brennan: “I was not going to let them get away with it.”
She said gardai were notified and brought her to a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit where she was examined and samples were taken. She gave gardai her mobile phone.
The woman said she had received a snapchat from the first defendant saying “soz” meaning sorry, but she did not save it.
She told Ms Brennan that she had bruising to her face and upper legs and a bite mark on her face.
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