Locations
Hadleigh Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP2
Description
An Ipswich man who raped a drunk woman at an 18th birthday party at a house in the town has been jailed for seven and a half years.
Sentencing 23-year-old Keiffer Sewell, Judge Emma Peters described the offence as “ opportunistic” and said he had taken advantage of the woman while she was particularly vulnerable, because she was drunk.
“You have been convicted on the basis of quite compelling evidence,” said the judge.
She said that after removing the woman’s clothes, Sewell had stifled her cries for help by putting her duvet over her mouth before raping her.
She said that after his DNA was found on internal swabs taken from the woman, he had desperately tried to come up with ways it could have got there.
Sewell, of Hadleigh Road, Ipswich, denied raping the woman, who is in her 20s, four years ago in 2017, when he was 19.
He was found guilty by a jury by an 11-1 majority verdict after a week-long trial at Ipswich Crown Court.
He will have to serve at least two-thirds of the sentence and will have to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
The court was told that during the party, the woman was sick after having too much to drink and went upstairs to her bedroom.
Sewell went upstairs with the woman, undressed her and raped her.
The police were called after the woman complained that she had been raped.
Sewell’s full DNA profile was found on internal swabs taken from her.
Giving evidence, Sewell told the court the girl had kissed and hugged him during the party.
He said the woman’s mother had asked him to take her to her bedroom after she was sick, because of the amount she had to drink.
He said he had rubbed the woman’s back and accompanied her to the toilet when she was sick. He denied removing her clothes and raping her.
Juliet Donovan, for Sewell, who has no previous convictions, said he had a young son and a loving partner and family.
She said Sewell maintained his position that he was not guilty.