By Jeremiah Aminu
Two Nigerians have been jailed for a combined period of 21 years for reportedly raping a 15-year-old girl in Brixton, South London.
This incident was reported to have occurred last year on 8 February. The culprits, Fred Akinsanya, a 34-year-old man from South Croydon, and Daniel Raji, a 29-year-old man from Brixton, marked the teenage girl as a target after buying her drinks at Paddy’s Yard pub in Brixton.
They then invited the girl and some of her friends to Raji’s residence to smoke and dance.
In the event that followed, according to a report by Sahara Reporters: “The victim’s friends tried to persuade her to leave with them as they felt uncomfortable but she started blacking out and collapsed, Inner London Crown Court heard.
The defendants then put the girl through a prolonged ordeal, with Raji filming her”.
In a victim impact statement, the girl, who was in Year 10 at the time the dismal event occurred, commented on how the rape incident had negatively impacted her school life and relationship with people.
“I was in year 10 at school when I was raped—my school life was affected a lot. I didn’t want to go to my lessons. I find it hard to trust people. I’m in year 11 now, I still feel like my school life is being affected by the rape”, she said.
She was asked to view the video footage Raji recorded of her being naked. However, she could not continue, stating that she “found it too stressful”.
Both defendants, on the other hand, denied the charges. Irrespective of that, Akinsanya was convicted by the Jury for rape and sentenced to jail for 10 years. Raji was found guilty on two counts of rape, including taking an indicent image of a child. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
During the trial, Raji’s defence attorney, William Pope, requested that the judge, David Richards, take his client’s past record of good character into account, noting that the teenage girl and her friends claimed they were over 18. The judge, however, disagreed, remarking that the behaviour of the girls should have given a vivid impression that: “The whole tenor of that group is of school girls”.
Akinsanya’s defence counsel, on the other hand, Anna Faul, noted her client’s partial paralysis which resulted from an attack, implying that he was unfit to survive the rigours of prison life.
Richards, the judge, underscored the effect of this incident on the victim: “She’s lost her self-confidence. She can no longer go out. She will live with this for the rest of her life”.
To the culprits, he said that: “The fact that you two abused her one after the other clearly aggravates the matter. The victim was harmed for a long time.
Alcohol was used to render her vulnerable, the effect of the alcohol was exploited by both of you. Whilst incapable, she was raped by both of you”.
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