Saint told man to rape woman, court hears

Published on Wednesday 23 September 2009 00:31

A YOUNG mother yesterday wept as she told a court how she was allegedly raped by a student who quoted from the Bible and said St Christopher told him to do it.

The 22-year-old was giving evidence at the trial of Cornelius Buckley, 24, who denies raping her at student accommodation at Cathedral Street, Glasgow, on 6 January last year. He claims that they had consensual sex.

The mother-of-two, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told prosecutor Ashley Edwards she met Buckley as she walked from Play nightclub in Glasgow towards a taxi rank near Queen Street station.

She said they shared a taxi, but when they reached the student accommodation, the black cab driver refused to drive her to her home on the outskirts of Glasgow. The court was told Buckley, from Ireland, told her to come up to his flat and he would phone a taxi.

Once inside the flat, he gave her a beer in the living room and told her to go to another room where they would be able to hear the taxi better, she said.

But she claimed that minutes after they entered the room, he ripped off her clothes before raping her.

She told the jury: "I asked him to stop and he said: 'That's what you came here for.' He kept saying stuff from the Bible. He kept saying: 'I'm a good Catholic boy and St Christopher told me to do it.'"

She told the court that she managed to grab her handbag and a T-shirt and flee. She ran towards a nearby road and flagged down a passing taxi driver, who radioed the police.

She denied a suggestion by solicitor advocate Murray Macara QC that they had had consensual sex.

The trial, before temporary judge Mark Stewart QC, at the Glasgow High Court continues.