CCTV footage shown at trial of Donegal teenager accused of rape


The jury in the trial of a teenager accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in Co Donegal has been shown CCTV footage of them both before and after the alleged offences.
The accused, now aged 19, denies raping and orally raping the girl behind a building in a Co Donegal town following St Patrick’s Day celebrations on March 18, 2016.
The girl, now aged 18, previously told the Central Criminal Court that after consuming seven or eight alcoholic drinks with her friends in a bar, she met the boy at a takeaway and they went for a walk.
The footage showed the accused and injured party walking before the alleged incident with her arm around his shoulders and his around her waist and walking back holding hands and talking.
The accused is seen taking a phone out of his pocket and shining it on the girl’s hand.
Defence counsel, Michael O’Higgins SC suggested the pair are discussing the possibility of blood on her hands and the accused has shone the light as an act of conern.
“I don’t know if it’s natural concern on his part,” the girl responded.
Counsel said the footage also shows the girl pat the accused’s back and tousle his hair, they then kiss briefly before she appears to half shake her head and step apart.
Mr O’Higgins concluded his cross-examination by pointing out that sometimes people do things when they’re drunk that they would never consider otherwise.
To which the girl said she disagreed.
She confirmed that during a house party she hosted, herself and a friend had gone into a bedroom where the accused started kissing the two of them.
She said; “It was okay up to a point and then we both wanted to leave, he’d started touching us.”
The tiral continues.

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