Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding’s rape trial is due to enter its sixth week today with the attention now turning to their defence.
The Ireland and Ulster rugby players deny raping the same woman at a party at Jackson’s home in south Belfast in June 2016.
It took the prosecution five weeks to present its case to the jury.
During that time, they heard from the complainant who claimed Paddy Jackson pushed her onto his bed and raped her before Stuart Olding came into the room and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
She said a friend of theirs, Blane McIlory, from Royal Lodge Road in Belfast walked in completely naked. He’s facing one count of indecent exposure.
A fourth man, Rory Harrison, denies trying to cover up what’s alleged to have happened as he is being charged with perverting the course of justice and withholding information.
The jurors heard from another girl who also walked into the room and said she thought she’d seen a threesome. She said the woman didn’t seem distressed and she didn’t think she’d just witnessed a rape.
Medical and forensic evidence was also presented to the court as well as the lengthy police interviews conducted with the men who all denied the allegations and the version of events put forward by their accuser.
The defence teams will now be given an opportunity to call witnesses if they so wish. Each of the four accused men are entitled to take the stand but are under no obligation to do so.
