A 67-year-old businessman has described a young woman’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager by performing oral sex on her after spiking her drink as “a fantasy”.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, chose not to give evidence at his trial, but the jury of 10 men and two women at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court heard his refusal when a memo of his interview with the gardaí has ​​been redacted. evidence.

The accused denied a single charge of sexual assault against the woman in Waterford between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010, contrary to section two of the Criminal Law Amendment (Rape) Act 1990.

On Friday, the third day of the man’s trial, investigating officer Det Garda Stephanie Power from the Waterford Protective Services Unit told how she and colleague Det Garda Kelly Treacy arrested the accused on August 26, 2022 for question him about the alleged sexual assault.

The young woman had alleged that the accused sexually assaulted her when she was 19 after spiking her drink when she called him to his business premises to ask for a ride home. She said she woke up with her leggings and underwear around her ankles and the defendant between her legs, performing oral sex on her.

She also alleged the man texted her the next morning and asked if she remembered what happened. When she said no and asked him what happened, he sent her a text message with the word “Lickout” and then showed her a photo of her vagina on his phone.

The trial also heard from a friend of the complainant, who said her friend had mentioned to her sometime after the alleged assault that she had woken up to find the businessman on top of her after the sexually assaulted her and that he had sent her a text message. about this.

When Detective Garda Power presented the allegation to the accused during the interview, he confirmed that he knew the young woman and always got on well with her, but denied the allegation. “I don’t know what to say – it’s like a fantasy – I just don’t know what to say, a lot of it is far-fetched.”

He also rejected the idea that he spiked the young woman’s drink. “It’s like someone is interpreting it in a certain way – to give it a sinister twist.” This is completely false – you would think I was a predator, I don’t have time to be a predator. I don’t want to be a predator.

He said it scared him when the young woman sent him a private message on Facebook in 2021 accusing him of raping her and that is why he did not respond to her accusation. “Why me and why now, 12 years later? he asked while interviewing gardaí.

He also denied having asked the young woman for “a blowjob” and “a handjob” when taking her home a few months before the alleged sexual assault. He admitted that although he had loved the young woman, she wanted nothing to do with him romantically.

“I kissed her once on the lips – we both just laughed, it wasn’t anything romantic, just stupid,” the accused said, adding that it was the only such interaction that he ever had with the woman. The complainant had previously denied that such a kiss ever took place between them.

The complainant had also alleged that she was confronted by the accused’s wife and daughter about a month after the alleged assault after they discovered the images of her vagina on her phone, but the daughter of the man said this never happened. The affair continues.