“The difficulty came with knowing what the defense would be, that this was just the word of a woman…This was a woman who drank alcohol”
A Suffolk County Superior Court Jury convicted the Irish firefighter of raping the woman in 2024 after another trial in June ended with the jury deadlocked.
Crosbie (38) has been held in custody for the past year-and-a-half after he was arrested while trying to board a plane following a trip by Irish firefighters to the US city for St Patrick’s Day.
Mr Crosbie faces up to 20 years in prison at a sentencing hearing set for October 30.
Murphy said that the same day the trial ended in mistrial the DA’s office decided it would retry the case, because “it was not hard at all to do the right thing.”
Terence Crosbie
News in 90 Seconds – Saturday, October 25
“We’re absolutely elated,” prosecutor Erin Murphy told reporters following the verdict
“From the very beginning we both credited and supported the survivor in this case who bravely came forward after becoming a victim of sexual violence.”
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Daniela Mendes previously told the court that Mr Crosbie visited Boston alongside the Dublin Fire Brigade to take part in the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday, March 17, 2024.
“He used his trip as a way to be anonymous, far from home, and commit a rape he could get away with,” she told the jury.
She said that after having consensual sex with another man, the alleged victim fell asleep in a second bed in the hotel room, but awoke to find Crosbie “inside her”.
“The challenge was never the evidence,” Murphy said, accolading to the Boston Herald.
“The difficulty came with knowing what the defense would be, that this was just the word of a woman. This was a woman who drank alcohol. This is a woman who must have just been confused and not known what happened to her own body.
“And knowing that there are really outdated attitudes that can make their way into a jury room,” she added.
“So knowing what we would have to combat in the jury room with regard to that, not because of any holes in the evidence or anything like that, but knowing that we would have to overcome those attitudes.”
Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden said that he hopes the verdict helps ensure that “survivors to know that they are safe and that we will always be with them.
“In this particular case, we are here because the jury heard what the survivor in this case had to say and heard her testimony and all the surrounding facts,” Hayden continued.
“And so we can’t thank her enough for her courage, for her strength and her fortitude. She had to go through this twice, not once, but twice, and she should be applauded for that.
“And we’re happy with the verdict, but we’re most of all happy for her and that hopefully this brings her some measure of justice and some measure of peace.”