Accused friend says he had sex with alleged rape victim

A young Donegal man has claimed at the Central Criminal Court that he had sex with a teenage girl who is accusing his friend of rape weeks before the alleged incident.
Under cross-examination from prosecuting counsel, the man denied that he had been called in “like the cavalry” to rescue his friend in a “cynical misuse of the courts”.
The 23-year-old accused man has pleaded not guilty to rape and defilement of the girl on a date in February 2008.
It was put to the man that he was kept on “standby” in case things “got bad” for the accused and had lied under oath about his relations with the teenage complainant.
The man denied these allegations, insisting that he got involved in the trial on the advice of a mutual friend after hearing the complainant’s evidence about her sexual history on local radio, because “it was the right thing to do”.
The young woman said in court that she had only one sexual partner before the alleged rape.
Another young man told Mr David Goldberg SC, defending, that he saw the complainant go upstairs with the previous witness to a bedroom in a house they shared a few weeks before the alleged rape.
The witness denied this story was an “invention” when it was put it to him that he had “just lied” to help out his “buddies” and the accused.
The trial has reached closing stages before Mr Justice George Birmingham and a jury of seven men and five women.