“I am really sure my head was forced down” – The testimony against Stuart Olding

The trial of Paddy Jackson, Stuart Olding and two other men continued in Belfast on Tuesday.

A woman who claimed she was raped by two Ulster Rugby teammates gave inconsistencies to police about one of the alleged sexual assaults, the Crown Court was told.

The complainant, who was 19 at the time of the alleged sex attack, has accused 24-year old Stuart Olding of orally raping her at the same time she was being vaginally raped by his teammate Paddy Jackson.

She claims the rape occurred in the bedroom of Jackson’s south Belfast home in the early hours of 28 June, 2016 following a night out in the VIP section of Ollie’s nightclub.

As the trial at Belfast Crown Court entered its fourth week, a policeman from the Rape Crisis Unit was cross-examined by Frank O’Donoghue QC, who is representing Olding.

When he was asked about details the complainant gave regarding Mr Olding’s part in the sex attack, the Detective Constable said she was interviewed two days after the alleged incident

When asked about the mechanics of the sex attack, and how Mr Olding’s penis came to be in her mouth, she told police, “I am not entirely sure to be honest.” When she was again asked in the same interview about this, she said: “There was no conversation. I didn’t have a choice. I am really sure my head was forced down.”

Mr Olding, from Ardenlee Street in Belfast, has denied a charge of rape.

The jury of nine men and three women also heard that Mr Olding was arrested an hour after the complainant was interviewed by police. It also emerged that while Mr Olding was being interviewed, at the same time police were searching his home.

Officers seized a number of items of clothing – but not the garments he was wearing on the evening in question.

As he sat in the witness box, the police officer confirmed to Mr O’Donoghoe that Mr Olding co-operated fully and gave an account of his actions to police during interview.

It is Mr Olding’s case that after putting his penis in her mouth, the woman performed oral sex on him. He said he then ejaculated and then left the room, and that when he left the woman was on the bed.

The policeman was then asked if there were any inconsistencies between Olding’s version of events, and what a young woman who walked into the bedroom saw, and later told police.

The female witness, who also attended the afterparty at Jackson’s Oakleigh Park home, said she opened the door and saw a ‘consensual threesome’.

When asked if there were any inconsistencies in her account and Mr Olding’s, the policeman said he didn’t think Mr Olding mentioned a third person walking in, but there were differences regarding the woman’s state of undress at that point.

The court is expected to hear evidence this afternoon from a medic who examined the woman at the Rowan Centre in Antrim.

Reporting by Ashleigh McDonald for M&M News Services