A teenage boy has been found not guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl in a public park in Dublin on a date in April of last year.
The jury returned its majority verdicts after deliberating for almost four hours.
The boy told gardaí he met the girl for the first time at a shopping centre near the park where the girl accused him of raping her.
Both were underage at the time. He was 16, while she was 15.
He said they went to the park after kissing at the shopping centre, and he claimed it was her suggestion to go there. He also claimed she was the one who suggested sex.
In the end, he said they didn’t have sex but he said there was some consensual sexual activity.
She told gardaí she didn’t want to take things any further than kissing, and accused the boy of forcing her to have sex with him after leading her into some bushes at the park.
She told the jury she was too drunk to stop him.
Under cross-examination, she revealed she had sex with another boy in the same park a year beforehand, but said that was consensual and denied telling anyone it was against her will.
In the end, the jurors acquitted the boy of all charges by majority verdict.
