Jury deliberates without reaching a verdict over Dublin firefighter accused of raping American woman
Sarah Slater
The jury in the trial of a Dublin firefighter accused of allegedly raping an American woman in a hotel room while in Boston for St Patrick’s Day celebrations deliberated for a full day without reaching a verdict in his retrial.
Terence Crosbie, 38, has been in custody for 18 months and is accused of raping an American woman at the Omni Parker House hotel in downtown Boston after celebrating at the Black Rose bar on March 14th, 2024.
He is pleading not guilty.
Last June, his court hearing, which ended in a mistrial, found Mr Crosbie, 38, from Dublin, was in the American city with work colleagues as part of the St Patrick’s Day celebrations on March 14th, last year.
The jury has retired for the night and will resume deliberations on Friday.
It is alleged that on March 15th last year, Crosbie raped the now 29-year-old woman at the hotel. Mr Crosbie had flown to Boston from Ireland on the same day of the alleged incident with colleagues, and he was scheduled to leave the following Tuesday, March 18th.
Daniel Reilly delivered closing arguments for the defense and emphasised Mr Crosbie’s innocence and pointed to “reasonable doubt” in the case, in the form of no video or audio of the alleged attack and the “lack of” conclusive DNA evidence.
Mr Reilly said that his client’s testimony declaring himself “innocent” constitutes reasonable doubt and that the alleged victim’s blood sample from the hospital Emergency Department she went to established that she was “inebriated”.
Erin Murphy delivered closing arguments for the prosecution, asked the jury to convict Mr Crosbie.
Ms Murphy said the alleged victim had “no reason to lie” and gave a “detailed account of a stranger raping” her.
She pointed out that Mr Crosbie exploited Liam O'Brien's "oblivion" after drinking and whom he was sharing a room with him to take advantage of the victim.
Doctors and nurses who interacted with the victim found her to be “clinically sober” with no evidence of intoxication. Ms Murphy noted that the defendant was the only other man in the room; there was no other activity in that room (from key use records) around that time period.
She highlighted that the accused left early for Logan Airport because he knew he was caught.
Mr Crosbie has been in custody on a $50,000 bail at the Suffolk County Jail since his arrest.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
