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Irish Times
22-06-2025
- Irish Times
Boston rape case: The full story of Dublin firefighter Terence Crosbie's trial
After a six-day trial and more than 22 hours of jury deliberations, a Dublin firefighter arrested on rape charges in a US city last year remains behind bars, his fate still in limbo. A Boston judge declared a mistrial and the jury 'hung' on Friday, sending the jury of eight men and four women home, and Terence Crosbie (38) back to the Nashua Street Jail. If a retrial moves forward, Mr Crosbie will once again face charges for raping a 29-year-old attorney. The alleged assault was first reported to authorities by the woman at a hospital in the early hours of March 15th, 2024. READ MORE The night began at The Black Rose, an Irish pub in the city on one of the busiest nights for the bar, leading up to St Patrick's weekend. The Black Rose Irish pub in Boston The woman alleged she returned to the hotel room of a Dublin firefighter she met at the bar for a night of consensual sex. She was with a man she described as a little shorter than herself, bald, white, with an Irish accent and who authorities later identified as Liam O'Brien. Mr Crosbie and Mr O'Brien had travelled to Boston as part of a Dublin Fire Brigade contingent that was due to march in the city's St Patrick's Day parade. The woman claimed she fell asleep in the other bed and woke up to another man who 'was not bald' but who 'also had an Irish accent' raping her. The man, she claimed, mocked Mr O'Brien and insisted that she 'wanted it'. All this occurred to the 'dull background soundtrack', as a prosecutor put it, of Mr O'Brien's continuous snoring. 'Our nightmares belong in our sleep,' prosecutor Daniela Mendes told the jury in her opening statement on the first day of trial. 'Her nightmare began as she woke up.' Throughout, Mr Crosbie was steadfast in his insistence that he was wrongly accused and had been held behind bars for 15 months, unable to make bail or afford living costs in the foreign country. 'I'm going to ask you to consider Mr Crosbie's nightmare. I'm going to ask you to end that nightmare,' said defence attorney Daniel C Reilly in his closing argument to the jury. The assault allegedly took place at the historic Omni Parker House, the hotel made famous as the location where a young US politician named John F Kennedy proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier. The case was heard blocks away at the Suffolk Superior courthouse, an art deco relic with marbled hallways and wood panel courtrooms in the heart of Boston. The Omni Parker House hotel in Boston The jury heard testimony from the woman and Mr Crosbie, with assistance from a transcript, at times, to parse Mr Crosbie's accent. His defence team alleged the woman was a 'less than reliable reporter due to intoxication and memory lapses'. They argued that she did not remember Mr O'Brien's first or last name or having ever met Mr Crosbie. They made insinuations about her promiscuity and questioned her about psychiatric medication on the stand. On the other side, the prosecution alleged Mr Crosbie's testimony was 'rehearsed and insincere'. The woman was the prosecution's first witness. She testified that on Thursday, March 14th she had been hosting a social work gathering, went to a restaurant with colleagues afterwards and then to The Black Rose with a coworker. In cross-examination, Mr Crosbie's legal team asserted she had been out drinking for more than 10 hours. Dublin Fire Brigade member Terence Crosbie (centre) alongside his defence lawyers Daniel C Reilly (left) and Patrick Garrity during his trial in a Boston court. Photograph: Susan Zalkind A witness for the defence – Dr Chris Rosenbaum, who serves as the director of medical toxicology for Newton Wellesley Hospital – testified that the complainant reported a 'prior history of binge drinking' in her medical documents and that her blood alcohol level at the time she reported the assault the next morning can 'correlate with memory loss and impairment'. He said she could have been almost three times the legal driving limit at the time of the alleged assault. Prosecutors argued that she had her wits about her. They played CCTV video of The Black Rose from the evening in question. In the witness box, she pointed herself out in the video to jurors as the individual dancing 'very awkwardly' and trying to get others to join in. She said Mr O'Brien and his colleagues were wearing T-shirts identifying themselves as members of the Dublin Fire Brigade. CCTV video later showed her and Mr O'Brien entering the hotel, just before midnight, taking the elevator and walking towards room 610. Other video footage showed Mr Crosbie walking to a lobby area on the sixth floor, adjust the chair and scroll through his phone for the next two hours. Terence Crosbie. Photograph: X The woman said she didn't know Mr O'Brien had a roommate. CCTV video and hotel records later supported Mr Crosbie's testimony that they met briefly at the bar and he was briefly in the room when the woman and Mr O'Brien first arrived, and that he 'read between the lines' and quickly left the room. She testified that after having sex with Mr O'Brien she went to the bathroom and left the light on. When she returned Mr O'Brien was already asleep and taking up the majority of the bed, so she got into the other bed and fell asleep, intending to leave and work from home the next day. She told the court she 'woke up to somebody on top of me' raping her, she told the court, in tears. 'This person was taller than Liam and was not bald and I could hear Liam snoring,' she said. The woman testified that the man, who prosecutors said was Mr Crosbie, also disparaged Mr O'Brien, while assaulting her, saying that Mr O'Brien 'can't even do this for you – what a loser'. She testified that she could feel his weight on top of her and she told him to 'stop!' But he didn't, the court heard. When she eventually managed to manoeuvre her legs off the side of the bed and break free, and started to collect her clothes, she testified that Mr Crosbie continued to follow her around the hotel room, trying to kiss her. She said she went to the bathroom and that Mr Crosbie tried to get in and 'was jiggling the handle' after she locked the door. Under cross-examination, defence attorney Mr Reilly noted that she initially reported that the assailant was about her height and her testimony did not include details about Mr Crosbie's birthmarks or tattoos. 'I was trying not to look,' she said. The prosecution noted that she texted a friend at 2.18am as she left the hotel. 'I hate everyone,' she wrote. 'What the f*** is wrong with people.' 'I woke up and a guy was inside of me telling me I wanted it and telling me how pathetic it was that his friend couldn't give that,' the court heard. She then walked home, changed and went to hospital, bringing the clothes she wore in the hotel. There she reported the rape. DNA analyst Alexis Decesaris testified that the evidence collected from the woman was 'consistent' with there being 'two individuals' separate from her who were both male. There was a high likelihood that one of those male profiles belonged to Mr O'Brien, the court heard, but due to the limited amount of material collected it was unclear if the second set of male DNA, obtained from the woman's genitals, was deposited by Mr Crosbie. The defence argued that the testing 'did not identify Terence Crosbie's DNA'. Prosecutors argued that the finding of two male profiles matched the woman's account. The jury heard from Mr Crosbie twice, in a recorded police interview before his arrest, and as the concluding witness when he took the stand in the trial. 'I 100 per cent didn't do this. I've done nothing wrong,' Mr Crosbie said. 'I had no physical or sexual contact with her at all.' He said he knocked on the door when he returned to the hotel and shouted for Mr O'Brien. He said the room was dark and he 'heard no reply'. He said he used the torch on this phone to find his way to his bed and the complainant wasn't there. 'There was nobody in my bed, my bed was empty,' he told the court. He said he brushed clothes off his bed, and crawled under the covers in his boxer shorts. About a minute and a half after he got into bed he testified that he heard someone 'rummaging around the room' and assumed the woman was collecting her things to leave. He disputed the woman's account that he called Mr O'Brien a loser; this was not 'an Irish term' that he would use, he argued. Mr Crosbie claimed he attempted to fly back to Dublin on an early flight home because he was 'scared like a rabbit in the headlights' after being questioned by police. When Mr Crosbie took the stand, prosecutors also played a portion of his interview with police that had been previously redacted in which he told detectives he had masturbated in the hotel room and asked whether his DNA could have got on the complainant that way. A pair of Mr Crosbie's underwear with semen on it was later collected as evidence. In cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out that Mr Crosbie would not have had time to masturbate alone in his room until after the alleged assault. Mr Crosbie's defence team stressed that his story about masturbation was 'hypothetical'. In closing arguments, prosecutor Erin Murphy told jurors that they 'might not agree' with or 'relate' to the complainant's choice to go to the hotel with Mr O'Brien but that it was 'her choice'. 'That doesn't mean that that man's hotel roommate gets to rape her,' she said. Mr Crosbie is not the 'unluckiest man in the world; he is the man who raped [the woman] and he is the man who got caught', she told the jury. Mr Reilly argued that prosecutors had not met their 'high burden' of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. 'I suggest to you there are multiple reasonable doubts in this case,' he said.
Irish Times
16-06-2025
- Irish Times
Dublin firefighter thought he could ‘rape with impunity' in Boston, trial told
A Dublin firefighter accused of rape during the St Patrick's Day weekend last year 'thought he could come to Boston and rape with impunity', a prosecutor told his trial in closing arguments on Monday. Terence Crosbie (38) is charged with raping a 29-year-old woman in a hotel bedroom while his Dublin Fire Brigade colleague Liam O'Brien was asleep in a separate bed. The woman says she had consensual sex with Mr O'Brien at the Omni Parker House hotel after meeting him at The Black Rose bar in Boston on March 14th, 2024. She later fell asleep in a separate bed but awoke to find Mr Crosbie raping her, the trial has heard. Mr Crosbie denies the charges. READ MORE Closing arguments came after five days of testimony during the trial at Suffolk superior courthouse in Boston in which both Mr Crosbie and the alleged victim gave evidence. On Monday, defence counsel Daniel C Reilly told the court that because Mr O'Brien 'was supposedly asleep' and declined to participate in the trial, 'there are only two people who can know what happened'. He said the woman was a 'less-than-reliable reporter due to intoxication and memory lapses'. Mr Reilly told the court the woman could not remember Mr O'Brien's first or last name or that Mr Crosbie had been in the Omni Parker House hotel room when she and Mr O'Brien first arrived. He also said she did not recall Mr Crosbie having tattoos, did not cry out to Mr O'Brien for help and initially claimed her alleged assailant was about her height. Mr Reilly pointed out that Mr Crosbie is taller than the woman. Mr Reilly also sought to discredit the DNA evidence taken from the complainant revealing two male profiles. Expert witnesses testified during the trial that there was an insufficient amount of DNA to conclusively identify the second male contributor from the samples. Mr Reilly suggested the second male profile could have been someone other than Mr Crosbie. Prosecutor Erin Murphy argued that Mr Crosbie's testimony was 'rehearsed and insincere'. 'Didn't it seem a bit scripted until he got caught fudging it?' she asked. When Mr Crosbie took the stand previously, Ms Murphy played a portion of his interview with police in which he told detectives he had masturbated in the hotel room and questioned whether his DNA could have gotten on the complainant that way. In cross-examination, Ms Murphy said Mr Crosbie would not have had time to masturbate alone in his room until after the alleged assault. 'He tried to come up with some bogus lie to explain why his DNA might be found later,' Ms Murphy told the jury on Monday. She said Mr Crosbie 'thought he could come to Boston and rape with impunity and then skip town like it never happened. But that's not how it works here.' The prosecutor said the complainant's 'nightmare was real'. She was a 'human being' who was questioned repeatedly about the alleged events. 'She didn't fabricate or hallucinate a highly detailed and very specific account of a stranger raping her just because she drank some alcohol,' Ms Murphy said. 'If she was so drunk and she was making up a story, how did she get so much right?' she asked, noting that details of the woman's account were supported by CCTV footage. The trial continues before a jury of eight men and four women.
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Irish Times
‘I 100% didn't do this', Dublin firefighter accused of rape tells Boston court
The Dublin firefighter on trial for rape over St Patrick's Day weekend last year told a Boston jury on Friday, 'I 100 per cent didn't do this. I've done nothing wrong.' Terence Crosbie (38) took the stand as the concluding witness on the fifth day of trial. The complainant, a 29-year-old attorney, claims she was raped by Mr Crosbie while his Dublin Fire Brigade colleague Liam O'Brien slept in a separate bed in a shared hotel room. She says she had consensual relations with Mr O'Brien after meeting him at the Black Rose bar in Boston. She later fell asleep in a separate bed but then says she awoke to Mr Crosbie raping her. READ MORE Mr Crosbie denied this allegation on Friday. 'There was nobody in my bed, my bed was empty,' he told the court. 'I had no physical or sexual contact with her at all.' Mr Crosbie said that he 'said hello' to the complainant at The Black Rose and was in the hotel room when she and Mr O'Brien first entered. He stated that Mr O'Brien gave him a 'look' and that he 'read between the lines and left the room'. Approximately two hours later he returned. 'I knocked on the door and got no answer and I knocked a second time and still no answer,' he said. He claimed that he 'shouted' and called for Mr O'Brien two more times and 'heard no reply.' He said that the room was dark and 'even darker' after he shut the door and that he did not see Mr O'Brien or the complainant. Shortly after he got into bed he heard someone 'rummaging around the room'. The complainant previously stated that the bathroom light was on when Mr Crosbie returned. When she broke free from underneath Mr Crosbie and escaped to the bathroom to dress, he 'was jiggling the handle' after she locked the door. Under cross examination, defense attorney Daniel C Reilly had asked the complainant if she noticed if the assailant 'had body marks or tattoos.' 'I was trying not to look,' the complainant replied. On Friday, the defense submitted photos of tattoos on Mr Crosbie's upper arms and legs. Jurors previously heard that Mr Crosbie was arrested while boarding an early flight back to Dublin after being questioned by police. On Friday Mr Crosbie said that his 'head was spinning' and that he was 'scared like a rabbit in the headlights.' He stated that he reported the police interview to his superiors at the fire brigade and that when he returned to his hotel room, he found that the door was left open and packed his suitcase. 'I didn't like the fact that someone had been in my room and the nature of the allegations being made,' he stated. Mr Crosbie also denied insulting Mr O'Brien, claiming that he would not have used the word 'friend' as the complainant alleged. 'I would say mate or buddy,' he stated. Under direct questioning, Mr Crosbie stated he would not have used the word 'loser' either, as the complainant alleged he called Mr O'Brien. 'That's not an Irish term or anything I would use,' he said. 'Does the word 'stop' mean the same thing in Ireland as it does in the United States,' Suffolk County district attorney Erin Murphy asked Mr Crosbie under cross examination. 'Yes,' Mr Crosbie said. Dublin Fire Brigade member Terence Crosbie (right) with his defence lawyer Daniel C Reilly during his trial in a Boston court. Photograph: Susan Zalkind/The Irish Times Jurors previously saw video of Mr Crosbie with his head close to an unidentified blonde woman at The Black Rose bar, prior to the alleged assault. The state used this image to identify Mr Crosbie and a Dublin Fire Brigade emblem on his jumper. Mr Crosbie had previously stated he was married and has two daughters. 'What were you doing at the precise moment the [prosecution] decided to zoom in,' Mr Reilly asked Mr Crosbie in direct examination. 'I was kissing another woman,' he said. 'Is that what you're charged with in this case?' Mr Reilly asked. 'It's not, no,' said Mr Crosbie. Jurors previously saw video of the complainant leaving room 610 of the Omni Parker hotel 20 minutes after Mr Crosbie returned in the early hours of March 15th, 2024. Two minutes later she texted a friend: 'I woke up and a guy was inside of me.' In the text she alleged the perpetrator told her she 'wanted it' and that his 'friend' was 'pathetic.' The complainant reiterated this allegation on the stand, stating that she woke up to a man raping her and that Mr Crosbie called Mr O'Brien 'a loser'. Hours later she went to the hospital to report an assault. Jurors previously heard that in her initial reports the woman did not recall Mr O'Brien's name and did not recall meeting Mr Crosbie previously. Jurors also heard from an analyst who testified two male DNA profiles were collected from the complainant. Mr O'Brien was identified as one of the males. Jurors heard that it was unclear if the second set of male DNA was that of Mr Crosbie. The defense previously called Dr Chris Rosenbaum, the director of medical toxicology for Newton-Wellesley Hospital, as an expert witness. Dr Rosenbaum testified that the complainant reported a 'prior history of binge drinking' in her medical documents and that her blood alcohol level at the time she reported the assault the next morning can 'correlate with memory loss and impairment.' Mr Crosbie has been detained in the Nashua Street Jail since his arrest. Jurors will hear closing arguments on Monday.
Irish Times
12-06-2025
- Irish Times
Analysts ‘did not identify' DNA of Dublin firefighter accused of raping woman in Boston hotel, US court hears
Analysts 'did not identify' the DNA of the Dublin firefighter arrested on rape charges over St Patrick's Day weekend last year in samples collected from the complainant, a US court has heard. The complainant, a 29-year-old attorney, claims she was raped last year by Terence Crosbie (38) while his Dublin Fire Brigade colleague Liam O'Brien slept in a separate bed in a shared hotel room. She says she had consensual relations with Mr O'Brien after meeting him at the Black Rose bar in Boston. She later fell asleep in a separate bed but then awoke to Mr Crosbie raping her. Mr Crosbie denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty. READ MORE Alexis Decesaris, a DNA analyst, testified on Thursday that a process was conducted to eliminate female DNA and isolate male DNA from samples collected from the complainant. She said the results were 'consistent' with there being 'two individuals' separate from the complainant who are both male. Earlier in the day, the court heard from a Boston police crime lab analyst that there was a high likelihood that one of those male profiles belonged to Mr O'Brien. However, Ms Decesaris, an analyst at Bode Technology,said it was unclear if the second set of male DNA, collected from the complainant's genitals, was deposited by Mr Crosbie. [ Dublin firefighter accused of raping woman in Boston hotel says he 'didn't touch' her, US court hears Opens in new window ] Ms Decesaris then faced cross-examination from defence lawyer Patrick Garrity. Addressing her, he said: 'Your testing did not identify Terence Crosbie's DNA on that genital swab, did you?' Ms Decesaris said that was 'correct'. Under questioning from Suffolk assistant district attorney Erin Murphy, Ms Decesaris again confirmed the finding of 'two distinct male contributors' in a sample collected from the complainant. The jury previously heard a Boston police detective testify that the complainant did not recall Mr O'Brien's name and did not recall meeting Mr Crosbie before the alleged assault. The court was told the detective tracked down Mr Crosbie with the help of hotel security footage as well as images of Mr O'Brien and Mr Crosbie provided to him by a federal agent. He said that on March 16th, 2024 – a day after the woman reported the alleged rape – he approached Mr Crosbie by the lift of the hotel. [ US woman awoke in Boston hotel to 'somebody on top' raping her, jury in Dublin firefighter trial told Opens in new window ] Detectives initially asked Mr Crosbie of his whereabouts on March 14th and March 15th. Mr Crosbie said he was one of 10 members of Dublin Fire Brigade who travelled to Boston to march in the city's St Patrick's Day parade. Mr Crosbie said he had interacted with the woman in the bar and again briefly when she went up to the hotel room with Mr O'Brien. He told detectives he waited in a chair in the corridor outside of room 610 while the complainant and Mr O'Brien were inside, jurors heard. He told detectives he later knocked on the door, used his phone as a torch and 'didn't see anybody in the bed'. Mr Crosbie said he removed his trousers and shirt, pulled the bed covers off and got into the bed. A minute and a half later, he said, he 'heard a girl moving' and saw her collect her belongings in the dark and leave. He told detectives he did not have any interactions with the complainant before she left. When detectives asked whether Mr Crosbie had sex with the woman, he replied: 'No, I didn't touch her.' Mr Crosbie was arrested later that evening after booking an early flight back to Ireland and boarding an aircraft. The woman has told the court through tears that she 'woke up to somebody on top of me' raping her. She testified that she told him to 'stop' and that she eventually managed to manoeuvre her legs off the side of the bed and break free. According to the complainant, Mr Crosbie continued to follow her around the hotel room. When she collected her clothes and went to the bathroom, she said Mr Crosbie tried to get in and 'was jiggling the handle' after she locked the door.
Irish Times
11-06-2025
- Irish Times
Dublin firefighter accused of raping woman in Boston hotel says he ‘didn't touch' her, US court hears
The Dublin firefighter arrested on rape charges over St Patrick's Day weekend last year told Boston detectives he 'didn't touch' the female complainant in an audio played in a US court on Wednesday. The complainant, a 29-year-old attorney, claims she was raped by Terence Crosbie (39) while his Dublin Fire Brigade colleague Liam O'Brien slept in a separate bed in a shared hotel room. She said she had consensual relations with Mr O'Brien after meeting him at The Black Rose bar in Boston. She subsequently fell asleep and, she says, later woke up to a man raping her. The man was later identified as Mr Crosbie. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty. READ MORE On Wednesday, the third day of the trial in Boston, jurors heard an audio recording of Mr Crosbie denying having sex with the woman, touching her or finding her in his bed when he returned to his room at the Omni Parker House hotel in Boston in the early hours of March 15th, 2024. 'There's nothing missing there, there's nothing I'm skipping, there's nothing I'm leaving out,' Mr Crosbie said, after repeated questioning by the detectives. Boston Police detective Joseph McDonough testified that the woman did not recall Mr O'Brien's name and did not recall meeting Mr Crosbie before the alleged assault. The court was told that the detective tracked down Mr Crosbie with the help of hotel security footage as well as images of Mr O'Brien and Mr Crosbie provided to him by a federal agent. He said that on March 16th, 2024 – a day after the complainant reported the rape – he approached Mr Crosbie by the lift of the hotel. Detectives initially asked Mr Crosbie of his whereabouts on March 14th and March 15th. Mr Crosbie said he was one of 10 members of Dublin Fire Brigade who travelled to Boston to march in the city's St Patrick's Day parade. He said that he interacted with the woman, later identified as the complainant, on Thursday night at The Black Rose bar and again briefly, when the woman went up to the hotel room with Mr O'Brien. The Black Rose Irish pub in Boston Mr Crosbie said he waited in a chair in the corridor outside of room 610 while the complainant and Mr O'Brien were inside. He told detectives that when he returned to the room, he knocked on the door, used his phone as a torch and 'didn't see anybody in the bed'. Mr Crosbie said he removed his pants and shirt, pulled the bed covers off while still wearing his boxer shorts and got into the bed. A minute and a half after he laid down, he said he 'heard a girl moving' and saw her collect her belongings in the dark and leave. He told detectives he did not have any interactions with the complainant before she left. 'Didn't say hello, didn't say goodbye, didn't say anything,' Mr Crosbie said. When detectives asked whether Mr Crosbie had sex with the woman, he replied: 'No, I didn't touch her.' The detectives also asked Mr Crosbie if the woman was crying as she left. 'I don't know – it didn't sound like she was crying,' he replied. Mr Crosbie was arrested later that evening after booking an early flight back to Ireland and boarding a plane. The detective seized Mr Crosbie's luggage and took photos of his clothing, including a series of specialised T-shirts and jumpers with emblems featuring American flags in the shape of shamrocks and embroidered lettering saying: 'Dublin Fire Brigade Boston 2024.' Mr Crosbie was identified as wearing similar clothing in surveillance video taken of The Black Rose and the Omni Parker House hotel shown to the court. The Omni Parker House hotel in Boston where the woman alleges she was raped. The woman previously testified that she and Mr O'Brien had consensual sex and then she fell asleep in a separate bed. She told the court in tears that she 'woke up to somebody on top of me' and they were raping her. She said the man, alleged to be Mr Crosbie, disparaged Mr O'Brien while assaulting her. She claimed that while Mr Crosbie was having sex with her, he said: 'I know you want this; [Mr O'Brien] can't even do this for you – what a loser.' She testified that she told him to 'stop' and that she eventually managed to manoeuvre her legs off the side of the bed and break free. According to the complainant, Mr Crosbie continued to follow her around the hotel room. When she collected her clothes and went to the bathroom, she said Mr Crosbie tried to get in and 'was jiggling the handle' after she locked the door. Under cross examination on Wednesday, Mr Crosbie's defence attorney Daniel C Reilly asked Mr McDonough about discrepancies in the complainant's earlier interviews. Mr Reilly asserted that the woman did not provide detectives with details of Mr Crosbie attempting to push his way into the bathroom until April 8th – weeks after the alleged assault – in an email. 'In her prior interviews she did not mention being in a separate bed [from Mr O'Brien] when Mr Crosbie arrived,' Mr Reilly said. Mr McDonough confirmed that was correct. Jurors previously heard that Mr O'Brien was listed as a potential witness as part of the jury selection process. On Wednesday Mr Reilly said 'Mr O'Brien declined to participate in this trial'. Mr McDonough said that was correct. On Wednesday, jurors also heard from Lindsey Walsh, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the second medical professional to testify that the woman was found to be suffering from a vaginal tear hours after the alleged assault.
