‘Sexting should not damage credibility’
However, following one hour and 48 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty in the trial of a 35-year-old man who had denied two counts of sexual assault on his former partner and the mother of his child at her home three years ago.
John O’Sullivan, prosecuting, asked the jury to consider the shock Jane Austen would have “if she walked in to a bookshop and saw 50 Shades of Grey — but such is the change in society that we have today”.
He said: “Considering that, it is wrong to say that just because someone wrote certain content in text messages, it would therefore damage her credibility to make a complaint of sexual assault which was ‘forceful and violent’ and carried out by a man who was described as ‘controlling and angry’.”
Mr O’Sullivan said the alleged victim was of good character and there was evidence to support her claims made against the man with whom she had a four-and-a-half-year on-off relationship.
During the trial, the jury heard the accused was a “jealous” lover who became angry over a text message sent to an ex-partner just after the couple had consensual sex in the woman’s home in January 2013.
The relationship was described in court as often “volatile” but also “highly sexually charged”.
The accused was living in Clare and denied the two charges of sexual assault on January 26 and 27, 2013.
The trial heard that the woman was “sexting” messages agreeing to be a “naughty sex slave” and to be tied to a tree to have her “ass slapped” just before she claimed she was sexually assaulted.
“Jealousy”, the court heard, was said to be the main background to the case.
On the day she made a statement of complaint to gardaí, the court heard details that the woman engaged in texting with the accused seeking an “explanation and apology” for what had allegedly happened.
Following his arrest in February 2013, the accused denied the sexual assault allegations. He denied that he was ever aggressive and that any slapping between the two “did not have any force”.
Asked why he had apologised to the alleged victim in a text on the Sunday evening, the accused said the couple had had a disagreement, but this was after, and not related to, the consensual oral sex they had.
He said: “Women are fickle, sure aren’t we always apologising to them?”
Lorcan Connolly, defending, said it was simply the case that the man denied the sexual assault claims. “Lies and nonsense” is how the accused described the allegations to gardaí.
Mr Connolly asked the jury to consider the “only option as being not guilty”.
Judge O’Donnell asked the jury to be as “dispassionate as possible” in considering the verdict.
