An Irishman who works as a bartender in Midtown was arrested early this morning and charged with sexually assaulting a tourist in her friend's apartment near Columbia University. Police say that 22-year-old Damien McGuinness assaulted the woman after she'd had sex with his friend, Brian Duddy, 24. The two men met the victim earlier in the night along with another woman, whose apartment the alleged attack took place in.
"What started out as a consensual encounter between the defendant's friend and the complaining witness ended with the defendant raping [her]," Assistant District Attorney John Temple told a Manhattan judge earlier today.
The two men left the scene of the crime around 4:45 a.m. and the victim immediately called the police. Just after 5 a.m. McGuinness and Duddy were arrested, though the latter was later released with charges dropped. According to the public defender assigned to represent McGuinness, Duddy told detectives that "anything that transpired was consensual and that he was the only other witness to the incident." The other woman had gone to another room at the time of the attack.
The judge ordered McGuinness held on $5,000 bail, which it is unclear if he can pay. When he was ordered to surrender his passport, the Irishman said that he had recently lost it along with his license. He is next due in court on August 16.
