Paddy Jackson’s barrister has finished his closing speech to the jurors in the Ireland and Ulster rugby player’s rape trial.
He, along with his friend and teammate Stuart Olding, is accused of raping a 19-year-old student at his home in south Belfast in June 2016.
Two of their friends are also on trial for various offences arising from the same alleged incident.
Barrister Brendan Kelly got through six of the fifteen chapters of his closing speech yesterday, and picked up where he left off this morning.
His client Paddy Jackson admits engaging in certain sexual activity with the woman.
Mr Jackson claims it was consensual and denies having intercourse with her.
Yesterday, Mr Kelly put the defence’s theory forward – that the woman regretted having a consensual threesome with his client and Stuart Olding, and then lied about being raped because she was worried it had been recorded and would end up on social media.
In relation to the prosecution’s theory the defendants cooked up a plan to rubbish her allegation, Mr Kelly asked if a well-known sportsperson would really do that in a public place like a café as suggested.
He also said his client was not seeking favours or special treatment because of the school he went to, and denied he was playing the “rugby card”.
Before finishing, he described the quality of the evidence as poor, and asked the jurors if it deserved a conviction of this gravity.
