Castlewellan man convicted of rape

Castlewellan man convicted of rape

9 May 2012

A CASTLEWELLAN man has been convicted of raping a woman following a night out in 2009.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, committed the offence between August 6 and August 9, 2009.

He was convicted by a jury following a trial, which took place over several days in Downpatrick, with some sittings in Newtownards and Armagh.

The court heard the rape happened when the injured party, who was known to the defendant, “blacked out” due to alcohol.

She admitted she had intended to engage in sexual activity with the defendant that night but had woken up from her blackout to find him committing the rape.

Under cross-examination, she was accused of invent-ing the rape allegation to “excuse an embarrassing situation.”

“What is more embarrassing than sitting in a police station with somebody doing examinations on you?” she replied.

“What is more embarrassing than sitting in a courtroom and having to go through this in front of people?

“What is more more embarrassing than that? I would not invent this to bring myself into this situation.

“I told what happened. I put my head on the pillow and that was it until there was someone on top of me and I could not move.”

The defendant will be sentenced later this month following the production of a pre-sentence report.