A 30-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a man in his 60s blamed a garda for the case against him claiming the detective who arrested him was motivated by revenge because the accused once called him “a retard”.

The accused said today that, in 2016, one year before the alleged sexual incident, which he denies, he was verbally abusive to Detective Garda John Paul Twomey, calling him “a retard”. He said that was why the detective arrested him in October 2017 and charged him in relation to attempted rape and sexual assault.

Tim O’Leary SC said the defendant’s case was that this detective conspired to get three other gardaí to say they knew the defendant and to say he was the one gardaí met on the night of the alleged attempted rape in May 2017.

Mr O’Leary cross-examined the accused on this when he gave evidence in his own defence.

He asked the accused: “Are you suggesting that because you called him a retard around town on MacCurtain St, you think he waited until October 18, 2017, to wreak diabolical revenge on you — is he the cause of all this?”

The man replied: “Yeah.”

Det Gda Twomey said he was not assigned to Cork City centre in 2016 and had never met the accused before charging him in 2017.

Mr O’Leary suggested the defendant was denying the charges because he could not admit to himself what he had done. He said that was a matter for the jury to decide.

In his direct evidence, the accused told his own lawyer, Blaise O’Carroll SC, that “it was not me” and said he was heterosexual and had been with “loads of women” in his life. He said he had never met the complainant in the case.

Garda Sheena Dowling said she knew him before and he was the one lying on the duvet where the complainant was sitting when she arrived on May 30, 2017.

The accused said today he never met Gda Dowling before, it was not him that night, and it was someone else. Detective Garda Padraig Harrington also said he met the accused before that night and gave him a cigarette on the night and smoked with him while gardaí were dealing with the matter. Again the accused said it was not him and he had never met Det Gda Harrington before.

Mr O’Leary said that, from defendant’s point of view, it was a nightmare of coincidences where Gda Dowling, Det Gda Harrington, and, later, Sergeant James Morrissey, said the man they were dealing with on the night in May 2017 was the accused whom they knew from before, and that this doppelganger for the accused gave the defendant’s name on the night, gave his correct date of birth, and signed his name in a manner that looked like the defendant’s signature.

The case continues at the Central Criminal Court in Cork tomorrow. Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the jury of seven men and five women that they were no longer considering a rape charge but following legal argument they should consider an attempted rape charge. They still have to consider a sexual assault charge also.