By Court Reporter

Copyright derryjournal

The defendant, Kieran Joe Lynch from Carrickmore in St. Johnston in Donegal has denied that he raped the woman in the early hours of New Year’s Eve, 2023. Opening the case for the prosecution on Monday, barrister Geraldine McCullough K.C. said the complainant had been out socialising with friends in several city centre bars. In one of the bars she was approached by the defendant, whom she did now know, and he told her that he knew her as he’d picked her up from her home several time in the past. The complainant said she felt uneasy and left the bar pretending to the defendant that she was going to meet other friends. She said she rang a local taxi company and ordered a taxi. She also rang her wife and as she did so a car pulled up and the driver called out her name. She got into the car and the court was told she recognised the defendant as the driver. He allegedly said he would drive her home and during the journey he was chatty and kept touching her leg and commented on her tattoo. The court heard allegations that instead of driving the complainant home the defendant drove her to a lay-by in the Prehen area of the city. He then pushed the passenger seat back and when the complainant asked “what are you doing?” he allegedly raped her before dropping her off close to her home. She told her wife and a friend about the alleged rape and reported the incident to the police. Officers viewed city centre CCTV on which they saw the complainant getting into the defendant’s car and they also saw the car being driven on the Craigavon Bridge. The registration number of the car was traced to the defendant who attended for interview at Strabane P.S.N.I. station five days later. The defendant claimed the complainant had consented to having sex and claimed that she’d kissed him in a bar and on the way to the lay-by. He also claimed the complainant had performed oral sex on him as he drove his car and when they arrived at the lay-by he claimed she had said they were going to have sex. He claimed to the investigators that the complainant had initiated the consensual sex and that afterwards told him “we will meet again”. He also claimed to the police “she threw herself at me”. The prosecutor told the jurors that his account was “a fantasy” allegedly “designed to cover up his lies”. The trial continues.