Galway teen denies she made up story that her boyfriend raped her to get attention

Sonya McLean

A Galway teenager has denied that she made up a “story” that she had been raped by the boy she had been dating, so she could get attention.

The now 16-year-old accused boy pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to four charges - three charges of oral rape and one of rape of the then 13-year-old girl on dates between June and July 2023.

The incidences are alleged to have occurred in a County Galway housing estate where both children were living with their families. The accused was 14 years old at the time.

The complainant has been giving evidence via videolink during the trial after a DVD of her interview with specialist gardaí in July 2023 was played to the jury.

The girl has been giving her evidence with the assistance of an intermediary and was at times writing down her responses to questions, which were then read aloud by the intermediary to the court.

When asked by John Berry SC, defending, on Wednesday, if she had made up this “story” about the accused to get attention, the complainant wrote her response “no”.

“I wouldn’t go through hell for two years over a made-up situation. He can deny it all he likes – I know it happened,” the girl wrote.

Mr Berry asked the complainant what she was doing before the accused raped her in his bedroom, she wrote: “ I don’t know what I was doing before it happened”.

“But I know he traumatised me and it took two years of my life and I won’t let it take any more of it,” she continued.

Mr Berry asked the complainant how the rape started.

She wrote that the accused stood in front of her and “forced his penis in my mouth”. She said when he was finished with that, he grabbed her shorts and knickers and pushed them aside “before he raped me”.

She said she cried when he stopped, and he asked her for tissues. She put on her shoes and left.

“That is what repeats in my head every time I try to sleep – he left me traumatised and disorientated. It changed my life – I was just a child,” the complainant wrote.

Earlier in the trial, Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, told the jury in her opening address that the complainant’s mother got a Snapchat from her child on July 7th, 2023, telling her that the accused had raped her.

The message said that the complainant didn’t want to go to the gardaí and said she just wanted her mother to know – she said it had been going on “a while”.

A screenshot of that Snapchat message was later read out to the jury while the complainant was present via videolink.

The girl accepted that she told her mother in the message that she did not realise the accused had raped her until her friends helped her realise.

She said in the message that the accused had asked her for sex but she kept saying “tomorrow, tomorrow”.

Mr Berry told the complainant in cross-examination that she had provided a number of people with various different dates in relation to when she said the alleged rape occurred.

“I know he raped me in June 2023 but I am not sure what date,” the complainant wrote.

“Why does the date that you said you were raped by the accused keep changing?” Mr Berry asked.

“I don’t know the exact date because I don’t care for the exact date – I was 13 and completely disorientated,” the complainant wrote in her response.

“The reason the date keeps changing is because this never happened – isn’t that right?” counsel suggested.

“No,” replied the complainant.

She acknowledged that she knew that the accused denies that anything ever happened.

She agreed that she said that the accused forced her to give him oral sex three times.

“He said that this never happened,” Mr Berry replied.

She agreed that she told her friends what had happened. She named her friends and agreed that she told them before she sent the Snapchat message to her mother saying that the accused had raped her.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McGrath and a jury.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.