26-year-old Blane McIlroy denies exposing his genitals to the complainant.
Next to address the jury on Wednesday was Arthur Harvey QC, who represents Blane McIlroy. The 26-year-old, from Royal Lodge Road in Belfast, has been charged, and denies, exposing his genitals to the complainant.
Telling the jury that when arrested in June 2016 McIlroy was one semester short of completing a university degree in America, Mr Harvey branded the case as a “tragedy” for everyone involved.
Last week the jury was asked to consider whether or not the four men on trial were “liars or legends”. However, Mr Harvey said this was not the case as “that does not answer the primary function you are here to fulfil… and that is to determine whether or not Mr McIlroy and his co-defendants are guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the charges that they face”.
In her evidence, the complainant said after she was attacked by Jackson and Olding, a naked McIlroy appeared in the room, and thrust his penis at her, demanding sex. This version was rejected by McIlroy, who said that after walking into the bedroom, the woman masturbated him then briefly performed oral sex on him, before asking if anyone had condoms.
McIlroy said Jackson was also in the room, and after leaving to look for condoms, when he came back to the bedroom, the woman was getting dressed.
Mr Harvey said McIlroy’s “life changed, and it changed irrevocably” 20 months ago when his client walked into a police station and gave an account of what happened.
Mr Harvey talked about the young woman who also attended the after party at Jackson’s, and who opened the bedroom door and gave evidence that she saw a consensual threesome.
Regarding what he called “indiscrepancies” in the complainant’s account – which the defence barrister attributed to alcohol consumption – Mr Harvey posed the question: “What had she to gain from telling an untruth?”
He told the jury: “The simple thing, in literature and life, is that lies don’t start off, necessarily, as a malicious intent to cause real damage to others. But lies build on lies. If you have a sense you are about to be shamed on a network to which your friends access, the first reaction is ‘how do you deal with the shame?’ Mostly, it’s ‘how do I save face?’
Mr Harvey said her reaction was one of being mortified of the consequences of having her image uploaded onto social media, as she feared the woman at the door had taken a picture of the scene in the bedroom.
Regarding the woman’s allegations against McIlroy, Mr Harvey spoke of “significant and substantial differences” in accounts she gave to different people.
He said the first narrative was in a text message to a friend, where the complainant says ‘3rd guy coming and trying to join in, pushing his d**k at me’. Mr Harvey said she mentions McIlroy at the Brooke Clinic in Belfast as a ‘3rd person attempting to join in’.
She then told a medic at the Rowan Centre ‘a man, third guy, came in and took his trousers down’, which Mr Harvey said then graduated to telling police McIlroy ‘appears at the door naked’.
Mr Harvey asked the jury to consider what McIlroy told police when he was interviewed on 30 June. Saying his client’s account must have “bewildered” officers, the QC asked whether or not it was possible that McIlroy “deliberately lied to his parents and deliberately manufactured an account he would then deliver to the police over the course of 12 interviews”.
Saying the police “quite simply… didn’t know how to handle the truth”, Mr Harvey also asked whether it was plausible that McIlroy was “prepared to sacrifice himself and face more serious charges” as well as putting his parents “through the wringer”.
Mr Harvey said: “Mr McIlroy has told the truth. The truth is simply not compatible with the account of (the complainant) and (the complainant) as we know has a memory which is fragmented – she accepted that – and alcohol is a ready explanation for that.”
He also asked the jury: “What rational, reasonable, sensible, intelligent individual would present themselves in a police station to give an account, before he knew what any of the allegations were, specifically against him?
“To incriminate himself to a potentially much more serious charge, quite simply, it does not bear examination.”
Mr Harvey also mentioned the texts, and said that while the defendants were braggarts, they weren’t rapists.
Telling the jury their verdict “will affect a young man for the rest of his life”, Mr Harvey asked if they were sure beyond reasonable doubt of his guilt. Telling the members to “honour your oath” and come to a verdict based on the evidence, Mr Harvey said this verdict should be one of ‘not guilty’.
The case will sit again tomorrow when Gavan Duffy QC, the barrister representing Rory Harrison (25), will be the fourth and final defence barrister to address the jury.
From Manse Road in Belfast, Harrison has been charged with, and denies, perverting the course of justice and withholding information.
Reporting by Ashleigh McDonald for M&M News Services.
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