Trial begins for man accused of rape

Monday 05 June 2017

The assize trial of a 37-year-old male accused of rape and indecent assault on a 23-year-old woman started this morning in the Royal Court.

Marcio Patricio Figueira Dias is pleading not guilty to all charges which also include three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice by inciting evidence to be destroyed and contact to be made with the victim and a witness.

Mr Dias is accused of having raped a 23-year-old woman in the early hours of 27 August at her friend's house. The victim and the defendant had never met before the alleged assault and had been out in separate nightclubs the evening before. They were both walking home at about 01:30. The victim was with two of her friends, a man and a woman, and the defendant joined them somewhere between Havana Club and Upper Midvale Road, as shows CCTV footage of that night.

The defendant went with them into the man's house and the victim says he assaulted her on the second floor while her friends were downstairs. She says her memory from the evening is "patchy" because she was "quite drunk" but she remembers that after he tried to kiss her, she made an attempt to leave the room they were in to get to her friends. 

The defendant then allegedly grabbed her on the landing, laid her down on the floor and tried to perform oral sex on her. She said no and tried to squirm away but he then raped her. After the alleged assault, the victim ran downstairs, wearing nothing but a towel, to tell her friends she had been raped. The following day she went to the Police to report the assault.

DNA evidence shows that the victim and the defendant had sexual intercourse but the defendant says it was consensual and took place in one of the bedrooms. Mr Dias, who is defended by Advocate Sarah Dale, was arrested on 30 August.

Prosecuting, Crown Advocate Howard Sharp, explained that the issue of the case was one of consent and of "what happens when a woman says no and when a man carries on anyway."

The 12 members of the Jury, four women and eight men, and the witnesses were sworn in this morning. Proceedings are set to continue later today with the victim giving evidence to the Court, presided by the Bailiff, William Bailhache.