Rugby rape trial jury sent out to decide verdicts

Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding

Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding

Jurors at the rape trial of two Ireland rugby global players must reach their verdict after considering all of the evidence, a judge has said.

The jury began their deliberations at 12:40.

As she discharged the jury for the day, judge Patricia Smyth repeated warnings not to discuss the trial with anyone outside the 11-person panel.

A jury has retired to consider their verdicts in the rape trial of Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding.

Paddy Jackson, 26, from Belfast's Oakleigh Park, is charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault.

Their friend, Blane McIlroy (26) denies one count of exposure, while Rory Harrison (25) has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice and withholding information relating to the incident.

She said: "Thank you all sincerely for stepping out of your own lives and coming here to give us your time".

Judge Smyth also addressed inconsistencies in accounts that the complainant gave to her friends, medics, and police, and also when she gave evidence at the trial last month.

The judge cited the evidence of a woman who appeared as a character witness for Mr Harrison.

They were told to consider the case for and against each defendant separately.

Instead, she said: "Your only task is to decide whether the prosecution has made you sure of the defendants' guilt".

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She asked the jury to consider all these accounts and to determine "whether her evidence is true", and once again told them distress and demeanour were not indicators of truthfulness.

It is a matter for the jury to determine whether someone "may have tailored his evidence accordingly".

Ms Smyth added: "Please do not let yourselves be distracted from this task". She said none of the men had previously been in trouble with police.

Saying inconsistencies were not uncommon in cases such as this, the judge said different people reacted in different ways when recalling such an experience.

Reasons include panic or confusion, the court heard.

Referencing criticisms of the police investigation, Ms Smyth told jurors all the evidence had been fully tested in court.

Jurors have been told a woman is entitled to say no.

Meanwhile, alcohol consumption must also be taken into account.

The judge said the case should be decided on the evidence presented in court, and nothing else.

The judge warned the jury not to "leap to a conclusion" that because they had been drinking alcohol and were drunk on the night in question that they were "prepared to engage in non-consensual sex".

Throughout the hearing all four defendants, dressed in dark suits, shirts and ties sat side by side in the glass dock in the middle of the courtroom number 12, one of the biggest in the Laganside complex.

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