Courts / Dublin / Report

Jury in rape trial hears of phone analysis

Date
2016-10-06

Stage
Trial

Primary locality
Dublin

County
Dublin

Summary

In the Central Criminal Court, a 29‑year‑old defendant pleaded not guilty to a single count of rape, claiming he was sleepwalking when he allegedly assaulted a female friend in a Dublin apartment on 28 September 2008. The jury has heard that Garda Noel Sweeney performed a mobile‑phone analysis in February 2009, extracting incoming and outgoing texts between the complainant and the accused during a specific period. Sweeney confirmed that the analysis involved downloading the phone and selected text messages, producing a print‑out. He acknowledged that the phone could retain or delete messages, but stated that in this case no such deletion was performed. He also noted that, apart from five texts, no outgoing messages were recorded after 26 October 2008, the day the complainant first visited a Garda station. The trial proceeds before Justice Patrick McCarthy with a jury of eight men and four women.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Jury in rape trial hears of phone analysis. Charges or matters: one count of raping the woman at an apartment in Dublin in the early hours of September 28, 2008. Procedural stage: trial

When: