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A 17-year-old boy has been tried in the Central Criminal Court for raping and sexually assaulting a girl in a park in the south of Dublin.
The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the girl and not guilty of one count of sexually assaulting her in a park in south Dublin on April 13, 2019.
The whistleblower in the case is also now 17 years old, the jury was told.
Opening the case to a jury of nine women and three men on Tuesday, Garnet Orange SC, the prosecutor, said the court would hear evidence that on the night in question, the girl went to a friend’s house where she drank some liquor.
He said the two girls went to a shopping center where they met several young men.
“At some point after 6pm tonight, (the girl) met this boy (the defendant) who was roughly the same age as her,” Orange said. “They did not know each other.”
The court heard that the teens drank slightly more alcohol and the group moved in a different direction, while the boy and girl headed to a wooded park near the mall.
The prosecution’s case is that the girl wanted to follow her friends, but the boy said this was the way to go and brought her to this wooded area, Orange said. They started kissing in the park.
“It is anticipated that you will hear evidence that something happened between (them) at that time that 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 that the incident was “something that happened very quickly.”
“It is the case of the prosecution 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 contact that took place amounts to a sexual assault.”
The court heard that the boy and girl left the area and were seen shortly after by the girl’s aunt, who was driving through the area.
The boy was wearing his shoes, the court heard. The aunt alerted the girl’s mother who went to find her daughter to take her home.
When she found her daughter, “There was an all-powerful fight between the two of them, culminating in (the girl) being forced to get in the car and take her home,” Mr. Orange said. “You will hear evidence of a new disturbance in the family home in which certain allegations were made.”
During this time, someone called Gardaí to tell them that a child had been forced into a car.
They arrived at the family home and were informed of the accusations against the boy and an investigation was launched.
When questioned by Gardaí, the boy denied having met the girl and denied that anything had happened between them that night, the court heard.
When it was learned that forensic samples taken from the girl linked the boy’s DNA to her, the boy “agreed that he had lied about his earlier version,” Orange said.
“She said that she had had some sexual contact, but it was her idea and she instigated it.”
The trial continues before Judge Eileen Creedon.
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