36-year-old man pleads not guilty to sexual assault

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A 36-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting a woman he met on Tinder. The proceedings were reported on 28 November 2017.

The alleged assault took place on the University College Dublin campus on 23 July 2014. Garda Declan Ryan told the court he interviewed the complainant on 25 and 28 July 2014. He said she identified the Nova running pitch as the location of the alleged assault.

Garda Ryan said he obtained CCTV footage showing the blue BMW driven by the accused that night. The footage showed the car entering a laneway known as the observatory and leaving approximately eight minutes later. Another camera filmed it travelling towards the Nova running pitch and leaving that area about a minute later.

Garda Ryan said he had not asked the complainant about the time spent in the laneway. Defence counsel Paul Flannery SC said that, if the complainant was to be believed, the car went down the laneway, turned around and drove back. When asked how long that would take, Garda Ryan said he could not say because it depended on the standard of driving and how far the driver went.

Judge Cormac Quinn told the jury that evidence would finish on Wednesday and closing speeches would begin.