A man who raped a woman in the female toilets of a busy nightclub returned to his friends in the so-called VIP area of the club and “gloated” about what he had done, a court has heard.
Onyedika Oriaku then took one of his friends back to the lavatories where he’d just carried out the sex attack – something the judge described as “sinister”.
University student Oriaku claimed the sex in the toilet cubicle had been consensual and his victim had been the one who had initiated the contact but he was convicted at trial of rape.
Sending him to prison the judge told him that having watched CCTV from the club and seen the defendant giving evidence in court he had come to the conclusion that Oriakau had a “very high opinion of himself”.
Ian Wright, prosecuting told Swansea Crown Court 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, aged 30, of Victoria Terrace, 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, for 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.
