Updated / Thursday, 18 Jul 2024 14:46

RTÉ Courts Reporter

A woman has told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that she was horrified, scared and shocked during an alleged sexual assault by a garda in a Co Wicklow station almost four years ago.

William Ryan, 38, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual assault and one of false imprisonment of the woman at Aughrim Garda Station in September 2020.

The woman told the court she went numb and froze during the alleged incident which she said happened after the garda told her it was time to return a favour he had done for her in helping her to recover a car which had been seized.

She said she had contacted Garda Ryan by text to ask if he was working and told him her son’s car had been seized by gardaí in Carlow the night before as he was an unaccompanied driver.

The woman said she was unsure what the protocol was and wanted to see if her sister could collect the car because she was feeling unwell.

She said Gda Ryan immediately rang her back and told her he would be in the station at 9.45, would be getting a shower, and to call to the station some time after 10.15. She said he told her he did not want to call to her house as she had been tested for Covid-19.

The woman said that, before the call ended, Gda Ryan said “wear something tight” and when she replied “sorry?” he hung up.

Asked what she thought of that she said: “I was like why would you say something like that?” However, she said she was so worried about her son she just “wanted to get it sorted”.

After calling to the station, the woman said, he invited her in through a side door which was not the usual entrance and after making a call to help her arrange for the collection of her car Gda Ryan asked her to “go over there”.

She thought he wanted her to get something from the other side of the room and was walking over when he said “nice arse”. She said she was disturbed by the comment and sat back down.

Gda Ryan, the woman said, wheeled over to her on his swivel chair to return the documents she had given him and when she stood to leave he slapped and grabbed her backside.

“I was horrified. I was like what the hell, he shouldn’t be doing anything like that.” The woman said she said “excuse me” to Gda Ryan and reminded him that they must stay two metres apart. She said she was wearing a mask as it was during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gda Ryan walked ahead of her into the hallway and she could not get past him to the door, she added. She said she told him she had to leave and he said “don’t go yet”.

The woman said that he then said something which she took to mean he was sexually aroused and she told him that was none of her business and he should tell his wife. She said he then said “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. I’ve done you a favour now its time for you to repay the favour”.

The woman told the jury: “I was like oh shit, this is not right. I was scared, I was shocked, I had never been in that position before. He said come upstairs and I said I don’t want to. I was numb, I just froze. It’s hard to explain.”

She said the garda told her he needed sexual relief and she did not understand why he was telling her this.

“I was shocked, scared. I did not know what was coming next. I just said I want to go and he said no don’t go. I said I have to collect the kids. I said I want to go. I was like how am I going to get out of this. I had my phone and I said I have a picture of me on holidays I can send it to you but he said ‘no no no don’t send it. Why would I want a picture when you’re standing in front of me’ and I said you’re not getting what is in front of you.”

The woman said she showed him a photograph of herself in a bikini and a nipple piercing was visible. She said he pulled down her top and felt both breasts while asking which one was pierced.

The woman said Gda Ryan asked her a number of times to go upstairs but she told him she did not want to. “He told me I would not have to do anything and that I could just stand there with my back to him.”

She said she did not feel she could leave the station as he was standing in her way in the hallway, adding that he was “fairly adamant” that he wanted her to go upstairs. The woman agreed but asked him to go first as she thought if he did she could get out of the station and run.

Before they went upstairs he had locked the side door, she said. Asked how she felt at that point she replied: “It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had. The only way I can described it was flight, fight or freeze and I froze.”

She said Gda Ryan refused to go upstairs first and instead put his hand on her shoulder and ushered her upstairs. She said he asked her to leave her bag and phone outside a shower room before they went in.

The woman said she could hear the garda behind her undo the zip on his trousers and knew he was “playing with himself” because he had told her what he was going to do.

“I could not believe this was happening. I just did not want to be there. It was like I was frozen in the moment,” she said. She went on to describe how Gda Ryan allegedly grabbed her hand and placed it on his penis and she pulled her hand back. Breaking down in tears, she said he then pulled down her leggings and sexually assaulted her.

During that time, she said, she remained fixated and focused on looking out the window because: “I didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want to see, I didn’t want to know”.

Afterwards, the woman said, the garda made light conversation and she was thinking “where have you been for the last ten minutes”. She said she almost fell down the stairs trying to get out quickly.

She drove home and was “all over the place”. “I could not believe it had happened because I trusted the garda,” she added. However, she said she had to get herself “back into mammy mode” and collect children from school.

The woman said that when her husband phoned to see how she got on she told him she got the issue of the car sorted but it was “f***ing horrendous”. She said she would tell him later when he got home. She said her husband knew her for a long time and knew she was upset when he got home.

She told him “almost everything” as there were children coming in and out and she said: “He was like what the f**k this shouldn’t have happened and I said I know but he is a guard and they can basically do what they want”.

The following day she had a brief conversation with Gda Ryan after he pulled up alongside her in his garda vehicle. He asked if she had got the car back and she replied but she said she did not want to speak to him.

The woman said that after receiving some advice she reported the matter to gardaí a month later. In court she identified a zip top she had been wearing on the day which she had given to gardaí.

The woman’s evidence continues this afternoon when she is expected to be cross-examined by counsel for the defence.