Clough man on trial for rape of woman after a Castlewellan night out

Clough man on trial for rape of woman after a Castlewellan night out

7 December 2016

THE trial of a man accused of raping a woman in a Castlewellan alleyway after a night out is underway at Downpatrick Crown Court.

Andrew Stevenson (27), of Moneycarragh Road, Clough, faces two charges of rape following the incident behind Mulholland’s Bar in Mary Street in the early hours on April 26 last year.

Stevenson has admitted having sex with the young woman but says it was consensual.

Outlining the prosecution case, Terence Mooney QC told the court the woman, who had been out drinking with friends at Maginn’s Bar earlier that evening, had become separated from them following a “foolish” dispute over takeaway food.

He said she took off upset and expected her friends to follow, adding that alcohol had probably played a part in her emotional state. He said it was at this point that she bumped into the defendant who offered comfort.

“She cried and cried on to his shoulder,” said the lawyer. “Within a short time she realised she did not know this person and shrugged him off and made her way to the taxi office.”

Mr Mooney claimed Stevenson later went on to suggest to her that either her friends or a taxi had arrived and followed her outside. He said he lingered there, offering to take her home and playing the “good samaritan”.

The lawyer said the woman then went into an alleyway to urinate and the defendant followed. He claimed Stevenson then became verbally abusive and raped her.

Mr Mooney told the court that the woman struggled and made a number of statements to the defendant to try to persuade him to desist but that these were ignored.

The lawyer said the woman then went back to the taxi office distressed, reporting she had been raped, and that the defendant was made to wait outside by staff as police were called.

He said forensic tests to be presented to the court would back up the woman’s account of the evening, with abrasions to her limbs and a bruised abdomen among the injuries reported by an examining doctor.

The lawyer said the defendant, who had earlier been drinking on his own in a bar that evening, and was “very drunk”, walked away towards Annsborough and phoned his wife to ask her to pick him up.

Mr Mooney stressed to the jury that while the woman may have left herself “vulnerable” she was not to blame for the evening’s events.

“This is not a case about young people drinking too much,” he said. “She is not to blame for drinking too much. She is perhaps foolish, perhaps immature to have left herself vulnerable, but this is not a case about her drinking. This is a case about whether or not that man in the dock raped her.”

Mr Mooney said the defendant initially made no comment to some questions posed by police but admitted having sex with the complainant. He said he went on to tell police that they had been kissing and that the woman had suggested going somewhere private as well as suggesting sexual activity. 

The lawyer said it was the defendant’s case that the woman “turned violent” when he told her he was married.

The defence case has yet to be opened. The trial continues.