Unnamed man pleads not guilty to rape at Central Criminal Court

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

A man who cannot be named for legal reasons has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of rape. The charge concerns an alleged rape of a female friend at an apartment in Dublin in the early hours of 28 September 2008. The proceedings were reported on 7 October 2016.

Anne Rowland BL, prosecuting, read the accused’s memo of interview with gardaí to the jury. He told gardaí he might have had sex with the woman while asleep and could not remember what happened. He described a history of sleep-walking, said he was in a semi-conscious state and claimed he would never have unprotected sex.

An investigating garda agreed with Anne-Marie Lawlor BL, defending, that the accused had no previous convictions and had never previously come to Garda attention. The garda also accepted that the accused had always been polite, respectful and co-operative.

The trial was continuing before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of eight men and four women.