GUILTY: Man convicted raping Spanish student in 'car park area' in Dublin city centre

A man has been found guilty of raping a Spanish tourist in Dublin city centre during New Year's Eve celebrations six years ago.

Christopher O'Grady, aged 33, formerly of Muirhevnamor, Dundalk, County Louth, had denied the single count of raping the then 19-year-old woman on January 1, 2019. He was homeless at the time and is in custody.

It was the State's case that O'Grady raped the woman on a street in the Dublin Castle area and that the woman didn't consent and was unable to consent due to the effects of alcohol.

The Central Criminal Court jury returned the verdict this Thursday after starting its deliberations Wednesday afternoon. Ms Justice Caroline Biggs thanked the jurors for their service and the attention they gave to the case.

After the verdict was delivered, she adjourned the case to June 19 for a sentencing hearing.

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In his closing speech to the jury this week, Tony McGillicuddy SC, prosecuting, said O'Grady “led (the woman) in a menacing and predatory way into an area off the normal streets of Dublin City Centre on New Year's Eve to have sexual intercourse with a 19-year-old Spanish student with hardly any English, against her consent and when she was in a bad state as a result of alcohol.”

He said the complainant's account of what happened that night was “honest, sincere and accounted for” and he urged jurors to find the man guilty of the charge.

The trial heard the woman had been in town to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks that night when she got separated from her friend and came into contact with O'Grady outside a shop. She told the court she was trying to find a bar to meet her friend and the man walked her through town to a car park area where the rape occurred.

The woman said she felt “like a doll” and didn't have any strength in her body during the alleged incident. Afterwards, the court has heard she walked with O'Grady back through the city centre for about 40 minutes, where she got talking to a couple – a man and woman - outside a shop and parted ways with O'Grady.

The woman ended up in a B&B with the second man after the woman went home. They had anal sex before she went home to her accommodation.

The complainant told the court it was painful and that she persuaded the man to stop. The trial was played CCTV footage of this encounter, which occurred in the hallway of the B&B.

Ms Justice Caroline Biggs warned the jury that they may find this footage “intrusive” and “distressing”, but she said she had made the decision that it needed to be shown in court as O'Grady had a constitutional right to put the evidence before them.

When the complainant woke up the next morning, she told the court she “realised I had two rapes and there might be a medical issue with that”. She went to hospital. The court heard no charge has been brought against the second man, who gave evidence during the trial.

In his closing speech, Mr McGillicuddy said he had not dwelt on the woman's sexual encounter with the second man that night, because the charge before the court related to the O'Grady only.

He said what the jury had to consider was whether the woman was capable of consenting to sexual intercourse between 1.40am and 2.17am on the morning in question.

In his closing speech to the jury, Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, said there were “bizarre” elements to the case and “huge similarities” between the two sexual encounters the woman had that night, including that they both took place in a semi-private / semi-public place.

He said that if it weren't for the fact that the jury had watched video evidence of the woman's sexual encounter with the second man, he would also have been on trial.