A trial has heard that a man accused of raping a woman with Down syndrome told Gardai he’d never heard of the condition and asked them to explain it to him.
He denies raping her at his Dublin city flat during the summer of 2013 and has also pleaded NOT guilty to having sex with a “mentally impaired person”.
The accused was arrested five days after the woman claims he brought her back to his flat after she became separated from her mother while out for a jog in June 2013.
During his first interview with Gardai, he said he never grabbed anyone and told them he didn’t know what Down syndrome is.
He said he’d never heard of the condition and asked the detective to explain it to him. He told them he thought that if a person could speak, they didn’t have a “mental problem”.
He told them he regularly has sex with women he meets while out walking the streets of Dublin, but insisted he didn’t have sex with anyone on the date of the alleged rape.
He repeatedly asked for the woman to be brought before him so they could talk “face to face” and agreed to take part in an ID parade.
He denies rape, sexual assault and having sex with a “mentally impaired person” – a charge which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
