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Young Wexford man weeps tears of relief as jury acquits him of sex assault
It took them just two hours of deliberation before they brought in their finding in the case
A 27-year-old man wept tears of relief at Wexford Circuit Court as he was found not guilty of sexual assault.
The unanimous verdict was delivered more than four years after the incident that led to his prosecution. The trial before Judge James McCourt was into its fifth day when the jury of eight men and four women reached their decision.
It took them just two hours of deliberation before they brought in their finding in the case.
The prosecution was taken after the defendant and his accuser met for the first time outside a rural pub in September of 2021. At closing time they walked up a lane to a field where they kissed while standing against some hay bales.
The young woman, then aged 19, complained that he went too far. She was examined at the sexual assault treatment unit in Waterford and found to have lacerations in her private parts.
'She simply did not want to be to be intimate with him,' concluded prosecuting counsel Sinead Gleeson.
Her opposite number Diarmuid Collins urged the jury to view what happened as a clumsy but consensual encounter.
In her testimony, the complainant told how she was in the pub to celebrate the birthday of a friend and she spent most of the evening in the company of girlfriends. However, at the end of the night she was on her own when the accused came up to her and made small talk.
The pair walked up the lane and began kissing in the field, which was in use as an overflow car park.
Her version of events – disputed by the defendant – was that he started sexually assaulting her with his hands.
'He never asked, he just did it,' was her recall. 'I was begging him to stop and he just laughed.'
Before she drew away, she had lost her underwear, which was found undamaged the following day by a garda who examined the scene.
In cross-examination by Mr Collins, she confirmed that his client had been the one with his back against the bales.
The injured party was collected by one of her parents and brought home where she discovered blood in her urine.
She also exchanged a series of Snapchat with the accused who had obtained her social media contact details just a few hours earlier.
Two screenshots of his Snapchats were available to the jury. In one, accompanied by a smiling emoji, he said 'you liked it really' and in the second he said he would try to stop the next time. They were both sent from a pub where the man had gone to continue drinking late into the night.
The young woman stated that the contents of the second message really frightened her with its reference to 'next time' and she blocked him.
She also told how the gardaí were called after she told her family what had happened. She was brought to the hospital in Waterford.
One of the officers who drove her and her mother to the sexual assault treatment unit came to court to give evidence.
Garda Orla Sherry consulted her notes and recalled that the complainant told her that night that the defendant had his fingers in her vagina for about five minutes before she pushed him away and ran to her friends.
Wexford circuit court
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She described the teenager as evasive and defensive, while she was unable to confirm whether she had stepped out of her underwear and how it had ended up on the ground.
In Waterford, the injured party was examined by Doctor Ellen McGovern who remembered her stating that she had asked the defendant to stop but that he just continued doing it.
The examination revealed two external lacerations and one abrasion in the vaginal area, along with three internal abrasions.
'Minor but sore' was how the doctor summed up the injuries, agreeing with Mr Collins that they could have been caused by a fingernail.
When he was interviewed a few weeks after the incident by Wexford-based Garda Richie Fitzgerald, the defendant agreed that he was the person who went up the lane with the complainant.
He maintained that she did not say no and that she did not seem uncomfortable, adding that he did not use force.
Entering the witness box in his own defence, he revealed that he had never been in the pub where the incident happened until the night in question.
'The allegation is not true,' he said under oath. 'I am not like that at all.'
He also reckoned that he had five or six pints and two or three double vodkas before going to the car park, followed by more drink later at another venue.
He added that he had zero recollection of sending the Snapchats.
In her speech to the jury, Ms Gleeson suggested that the young woman simply did not want to be intimate with the accused and that she had repeatedly said stop.
Mr Collins summed up what occurred as a 'clumsy and quick interaction in a car park'.
He reasoned that his client would never have sent the first Snapchat message of the night, which was not available as evidence to the trial, if he had felt he had committed an assault. He pointed out that there was no complaint made until after the social media exchange.
Counsel summed up what occurred as a misadventure. He agreed that the young woman should not have been hurt but insisted that what happened was nonetheless consensual.
The mother of the defendant and the father of the girl were present when the jury's decision was announced by the court registrar.
After the jurors left the courtroom, the accused shed his tears.
He was still in the dock when his solicitor came over to him and gave him a hug.
