A key witness in a rape trial yesterday conceded that a statement she gave police on the day of the alleged incident could have been “inaccurate”.
Mounier Mouti, 28, has gone on trial facing a charge of raping a 27-year-old woman in his Fraser Place flat in March 2019.
Mouti denies the charge and lodged a special defence of consent.
The female witness, a friend of the woman who alleges she was raped, was also present in the flat where prosecutors say the incident happened.
Under questioning yesterday, she said she was still “tipsy” from the night before when she gave her statement to police at the time – which had left her recollection of the night “a bit jumbled up”.
A remote jury, situated in the nearby Vue cinema, heard that the 26-year old could not be sure of her statement in the case against Mouti.
Representing the accused, lawyer David Moggach asked the witness if she had been drinking.
He said: “The statement taken by police on the morning of March 6, when you were still at Mounier’s flat – were you still suffering from the effects of alcohol or the after effects of alcohol?
She said: “I was still tipsy.”
“Had you had the opportunity to get much sleep?”, Mr Moggach asked.
“No”, she said.
The alleged victim and the witness had been on a night out in Aberdeen city centre on the night in question – where they visited Prohibition nightclub before going back to Mouti’s flat.
The alleged victim said she was raped by Mouti in his bathroom, while he claims the sex was consensual.
The female witness in the case, who was having an ongoing sexual relationship with Mouti, was in his bedroom when the alleged attack occurred elsewhere in the property.
Mr Moggach added: “I think it’s been suggested to you by the advocate depute that your friend had only left the bedroom once and that was to be sick, and after she left the flat.
“Can you be certain that that is the position?”
“No,” she said.
Mr Moggach then asked her: “It would not appear that you are someone who is going to deliberately lie to the police, might it be if that is contained in a police statement, it might be, for good reasons, inaccurate?”
The woman agreed that could be the case.
Mr Moggach asked: “We just don’t know, is that right?”
“Yes,” the witness said.
Lord Peter Baird, the judge in the trial, adjourned the case for the weekend and will hear Mouti’s evidence and cross examination on Monday.
