By Dylan O'Sullivan-
The alleged rape victim of Paddy Jackson was in tears as she begged the Ireland Rugby star to ”at least use a condom”, Belfast Crown Court heard.
Belfast Crown Court admitted in evidence a series of texts between two best friends following the rape allegation of one of them by two members of the Ulster rugby squad. The details from the texts were gripping and had each member of the juror listening intently to every word. The expressions on their faces revealed shock, disbelief, but also a searching mind as to the truth or lies of both the defendant and the complainant.
The texts form part of the evidence used in the high profile case against Ireland Rugby players, Paddy Jackson, Stuart Olding, Blane McIlroy and Rory Harrison. They were read out by the complainant’s best friend who had been with her in Ollie’s on the evening of Monday June 27, 2016.
In a segment of a trial that could potentially carry significant weight in the mind of jurors, the friend responded to questions put to her by the complainant’s Barrister , Toby Hedworth QC. The friend whose anonymity is granted , told the court that the woman in question had been socialising in the VIP area of Ollie’s night club.
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After closing time after the friends had gone their separate ways, the 21-year-old friend told the court a text from her female friend had dropped at 3.04am stating simply: “I’m back at Paddy Jackson’s”.
She replied:
“Ha ha how and why?”
The complainant, who was 19 at the time of the alleged incident, wrote: “Worst night ever. So I got raped.” Her message ended with five sad-face emojis.
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The woman’s friend told Belfast Crown Court she was shocked by the content of the text message conversation.
Responding to questions put to her in the witness box from Toby Hedworth QC, she said:
“I was in shock. I said I was so sorry. I told her I shouldn’t have left her. I said I’d never leave her again.”
The friend asked the complainant if she could telephone her. Instead of a direct answer, the text response read: “*******, it’s no way, shape or form your fault.” Her friend asked: “Where are you?”
The complainant answered: “I feel sick.”
The friend continued: “I’m so sorry.”
She later said:
“I was entirely fine going back to that afters.”
“So went back to their house. There were three other girls too.”
“Good fun for a while then the girls started to get slutty.
“There was one guy I really didn’t like and I was like right I’m going to go now.
“Went to get my shoes but my clutch was upstairs.
“Went to get it and Paddy Jackson came up behind me.
“He’d already tried it on earlier and I firmly told him where to go.
“The next thing I’m bent over the bed.
“I have bruising on my inner thighs. I feel like I’ve got bruising literally on my fanny. They were so rough I’ve got my period a week early.”
POLICE
The friend asked: “Were there more than one?”
The complainant responded: “Two and then a third tried to get involved. I was crying.”
“I’m so sorry,” her friend responded. The complainant explained that a “really nice guy” took her home.
When her friend phoned the alleged injured party, she texted:
“I can’t take a call. I don’t want anyone to hear”.
Her concerned friend advised the complainant to “get swabbed right now”, and told her she needed to speak with the police.
She replied:
“No seriously, I’m not going to the police. I’m not going up against Ulster Rugby because they’ll help.”
The friend said: “I’m never leaving you on your own again.”
She replied:
“I was crying and saying, ‘at least use a condom’ and Paddy Jackson said, ‘I am’.
“I was sick. I was shouting and a third guy was trying to get his dick into me. I was on the landing at this stage.”
“It was Paddy, some blond guy and Blane. He’s a c*** too.”
The friend asked: “How did you make it out?”She said a fourth man told her that what had happened would not make her any less of a person and that he was “sorry and disgusted”.
She added: “Like he actually got me into a taxi and asked if he could do anything for me or get anyone for me. I was bawling the whole way home.”
In another text she told her friend: “I was nipping and scratching Paddy Jackson’s arm because he was trying to get his whole hand into me.”
When urged to report the matter to the police, the complainant texted back: “I’d report it if I knew they’d get done but they won’t.”
Urging her to speak with police, her friend told her: “They are known to some people, they’re really not the be all and end all of the earth.”
“They are scum. It’s that rugby schoolboy attitude times a million”.
The friend said the complainant needed to attend a Rape Crisis centre and at least get an morning-after pill.She replied: “Like I hadn’t even shaved my legs. I wasn’t up or ready for f*****g anything. I feel so hollow. I f*****g hate guys. I’m so f*****g done with everything”.
Her friend replied: “This does not define your life from now on. You need counselling. You just cannot deal with this on your own. You need to get a full screening. This is beyond serious now”.
This same friend drove the woman into Belfast city centre on the afternoon of June 28 to find a Rape Crisis clinic but discovered it had closed down.
The women moved onto the nearby Brook Centre, where the woman spoke to a male counselor.
And she told the court she had sent her friend a number of photographs from the night in question which had been shared on social media.
The woman texted the complainant who featured in the background of the images, and said: “I know it’s not the sort of thing you want to see right now but I think they could help.”The complainant replied: “That’s me getting my shoes on to leave the first time.”
Mr Hedworth, acting for the complainant, asked the witness how her friend had seemed to be in terms of level of intoxication on the night in question.She replied: “I’d had three doubles and I assumed she’d had the same amount of drinks as me. And I can remember leaving and I assumed she could too. I didn’t think she was that – you go to a club and drink. But she was of sound mind – she could look after herself.”
Paddy Jackson, 26, from Belfast’s Oakleigh Park, is charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault. Stuart Olding, 24, from Ardenlee Street, Belfast, is also charged with rape.Blane McIlroy, 26, of Royal Lodge Road, Belfast, is charged with one count of exposure. Rory Harrison, 25, of Manse Road, Belfast is charged with perverting the course of justice and withholding information.
Each of the men deny all the charges against them.
The trial continues.
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