Onyedika Oriaku 30

Description

A man was branded "sinister" for bringing a friend into the nightclub toilets where he had just carried out a sexual attack against a woman. Student Onyedika Oriaku also claimed the sex in the toilet cubicle had been consensual and that his victim had initiated contact. However, a jury saw through his lies and he was convicted at trial of rape.

Reporting from Swansea Crown Court, WalesOnline heard prosecutor Ian Wright tell the judge that the rape took place at the Fiction nightclub in Swansea city centre in March this year. Oriaku and a group of other sunglass-wearing males were in the so-called VIP area of the club, and during the evening the defendant and a woman had been kissing.

The woman, who was described as "heavily intoxicated", later went to the toilet and the defendant followed her. In the toilets, Oriaku raped the woman in one of the cubicles.

The court heard that after the assault the defendant returned to his friends in the VIP area and then he and one of the group went to the female toilets where they were told "in no uncertain terms" to leave by two women present. During the trial the defendant maintained he had returned to the toilets in order to check on the welfare of the women as she had been "exhausted" by having sex with him.

The rape was subsequently reported to the police. In an statement from the victim that was read to the court the woman described the significant impact the attack has had on her mental health and on her life generally, and she said she was now very distrusting of men.

Onyedika Benedict Oriaku, of Victoria Terrace in Brynmill, Swansea, had previously been convicted by a jury of one count of rape when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions. James Hartson, defending Oriaku, said the defendant was a man of previously clean character who was a student in Swansea and had also been working in care sector.

Judge Geraint Walters told the defendant that, having watched CCTV footage from the club and having seen him giving evidence in the dock, he had come to conclusion that Oriaku "had a very high opinion of yourself, well beyond that which is deserved". He said while the woman may have been "disinhibited" by alcohol that did not give the defendant "the right to decide where it all ended", and he noted the student had then gone back to the friends and "gloated" about what he had done.

The judge described the defendant's account of why he returned to the toilets with another male as "fanciful beyond belief" and he described the return to the lavatories as "sinister". Judge Walters described that Oriaku did in the toilets as "truly shameful" and he noted he had shown no remorse for his actions.

Oriaku was sentenced to seven years in prison, and must serve two-thirds of that period before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.