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Central Criminal Court

Teenager goes on trial accused of raping and sexually assaulting girl in Dublin park

A 17-year-old boy is accused of raping and sexually assaulting a girl in a south Dublin park last year.

A 17-YEAR-OLD boy has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court accused of raping and sexually assaulting a girl in a south Dublin park.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the girl and not guilty to one count of sexually assaulting her at a park in south Dublin on 13 April 2019.

The complainant in the case is also now 17 years old, the jury was told.

Opening the case before the jury of nine women and three men today, Garnet Orange SC, prosecuting, said the court would hear evidence that on the evening in question, the girl went to a friend’s house where she drank some spirits.

He said the two girls went to a shopping centre where they met a number of young people.

“Sometime after 6pm on this evening, (the girl) met this boy (the accused) who was about the same age as herself,” Orange said. “They didn’t know each other.”

The court heard the teenagers consumed some more alcohol and the group moved on in a different direction, while the boy and girl went to a wooded park area near the shopping centre.

The prosecution case is that the girl wanted to follow her friends, but the boy said this was the way to go and he brought her down to this wooded area, Orange said. They started kissing in the park.

“It’s anticipated that you will hear evidence that something happened between (them) about that time which went beyond kissing,” Orange said.

He said the boy and girl were in the wooded area for no more than a couple of minutes and the incident was “something that happened very quickly”.

“It’s the prosecution case that within that particular area, (the girl) was raped in the sense that (the boy) put his penis in her vagina and she did not consent,” Orange said. “The other touching that took place amounts to a sexual assault.”

‘Forced into car’

The court heard that the boy and girl then left the area and were spotted shortly afterwards by the girl’s aunt, who happened to be driving through the area.

The boy was carrying her shoes, the court heard. The girl was “dishevelled” and did not have her “normal, pristine, well-turned out appearance”, Orange said.

The aunt alerted the girl’s mother who went looking for her daughter to bring her home.

When she found her daughter, “There was an almighty row between the two of them, which culminated in (the girl) being forced into the car and driven home”, Orange said. “You will hear evidence of a further disturbance in the family home in which certain allegations were made.”

During this time, someone phoned gardaí to tell them a child had been forced into a car.

They arrived at the family home and were told of the allegations against the boy and an investigation started.

When questioned by gardaí, the boy denied meeting the girl and denied anything happened between them that night, the court heard.

When it emerged that forensic samples taken from the girl linked the boy’s DNA to her, the boy “agreed he had lied about his previous account”, Orange said.

“He said some sexual contact had taken place but it was her idea and she instigated it.”

The trial continues before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon.

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