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Man accused of raping schoolgirl in city acquitted
Galway Bay fm newsroom – A man charged with raping a schoolgirl in her friend’s house in the city has been acquitted due to lack of evidence, by a jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Galway today.
The 40 year old man who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty to raping the then 15-year-old Junior Certificate student at a house in the city on April 17, 2011
The girl’s mother and siblings screamed abuse and threats at the man when the verdict was read out this afternoon in court.
Several Gardai had to restrain the girl’s family as they tried to get to the man, who had been accompanied during the four day trial by his sister.
The girl’s family continued to shout abuse at the man after the jury was discharged and a Garda van had to come to the courthouse to bring the man and his sister away.
The girl had given evidence that she, her 13-year-old friend and five other girls, aged between nine and four, had been left in the house while her friend’s mother went out to a pub on the night she claimed she was raped by the man, who had been a lodger in the house.
During a Garda interview, the man denied the allegations, claiming he was impotent and could not have carried out the attack.
The girl had not told an adult until four months later about the alleged rape and a medical examination carried out then could not support or preclude the rape allegation.
The jury of ten men and two women took just over half an hour to acquit the man, due, they said, to a lack of evidence.