THE TRIAL OF a man accused of raping a woman after a Jason Derulo concert has heard that one of the singer’s team told women attending the “after gig party” in a nightclub: “I’ve already picked my two girls.”
The complainant has previously told the Central Criminal Court that the 35-year-old accused, identified as “cap guy” to the jury, blocked her from getting off the tour bus. She claims he brought her upstairs, where he raped her, orally and vaginally, while they were “half in, half out of a bunk bed”.
She also claimed a 44-year-old co-accused, identified as the “larger man”, came over at one point and also raped her.
The woman said she was terrified and asked them to stop, but they didn’t. She said she managed to make her escape after a third man came over and said “I’m next”.
The 35 year-old man denies the offences which are alleged to have occurred in a vehicle at an unknown location in Cork city on June 27, 2014. He has pleaded not guilty to rape, oral rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment of the then 19-year-old woman.
At the start of day nine of the trial Timothy O’Leary SC, prosecuting, told the jury that the Director of Public Prosecutions was dropping all the charges against the 44-year-old accused because of insufficient evidence. This followed a ruling by Justice Paul Butler on Tuesday.
Mr Derulo is not charged with any offence in relation to these events.
Today, the complainant’s cousin, who was out with her on the night of the alleged incident, told the jury that one of the singer’s team told women attending the “after gig party” in a nightclub: “I’ve already picked my two girls.”
She also said that every male left the nightclub and headed for the tour bus holding hands with a woman who had attended the after gig party.
She told the jury that the complainant remarked to one of Jason Derulo’s entourage: “You know us, can we go on the bus?”
The witness said they then boarded the tour bus, but she left soon afterwards and rang and texted the complainant telling her to get off the bus as it was going to Dublin.
The jury then viewed CCTV of the complainant and friends leaving the nightclub and walking down an alley in the direction of the tour bus.
The witness agreed with Sean Guerin SC, defending, when he described the complainant as striding towards the tour bus “as fast as a woman can go in those heels, in that surface, in the rain” in the CCTV footage.
The trial also heard from a garda detective who took the complaint’s first formal statement to gardaí hours after the alleged incident, and also took her second statement, given ten days later.
Guerin asked the detective if she had ever come across a case when the formal statement of a complainant, taken immediately after an incident, has been “simply cast to one side and not included in the book of evidence?”
The witness replied that she had never been involved in a case where that had happened prior to this one.
She told the court that she was now aware that what the complainant said in her first and second statements, particularly regarding the order in which sexual acts occurred, were contradictory.
“I can’t say now why I didn’t go back to her and clarify, but at the time I was happy that I had enough detail,” she said.
The court also heard from a garda witness who sat in a patrol car with the complainant and took notes of the alleged incident before alerting colleagues not to allow the tour bus to depart the scene.
She told the jury that an informal ID parade was carried out in the car park of the Anglesea Street Garda Station in Cork as all males who were aboard the bus at the time of the alleged incident disembarked.
“She (the complainant) tipped me on the arm when the defendant got off the bus. I then arrested him at 5:38am,” she said.
A Garda Inspector told Tim O’Leary, prosecuting, that when he boarded the vehicle he recognised Jason Derulo.
“He came up and introduced himself, I recognised him, I knew him from the TV. He introduced me to the brother of his too.”
The inspector said that all those onboard the bus vacated it immediately in a very cooperative manner.
“I had no issue with anyone on the night,” he said.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Butler and a jury of ten men and two women.
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