Two Nigerian men have been sentenced to a combined 21 years in prison for the rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Brixton, south London.
Nigerian national Akinsanya, 34, from South Croydon, and 29-year-old Raji, from Brixton, targeted the teenager after buying her drinks at Paddy’s Yard, an Irish pub, on 8 February last year. They later invited the girl and some friends back to Raji’s flat to smoke cannabis and dance.
The girl’s friends reportedly urged her to leave, but she began blacking out and collapsed, Inner London Crown Court heard. The defendants then subjected her to a prolonged sexual assault, with Raji filming parts of the attack.
In an impact statement read to the court by prosecutor Diana Wilson, the victim described the lasting trauma. She said she now finds it “hard to trust people” and called her attackers “disgusting”. She also declined to watch the footage of the assault, describing it as “too stressful”.
Akinsanya denied the charges but was convicted of rape and sentenced to ten years in prison. Raji was convicted of two counts of rape and one of taking an indecent image of a child and received an 11-year sentence.
The victim told the court: “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.”
The court also heard that she stopped playing football, her only sport, due to a loss of confidence. She described the perpetrators as “disgusting” and said they must go to prison.
Ms Wilson said the girl was “particularly vulnerable due to her personal circumstances” and that the men “took advantage of an unconscious girl”.
Defence lawyers asked the court to consider mitigating factors. Raji’s lawyer argued he believed the girls were over 18, while Akinsanya’s lawyer highlighted his partial paralysis following an earlier attack.
Judge David Richards rejected these claims, stating it should have been obvious the girls were underage. He said the victim had lost her self-confidence.
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