A disgusting act shocks Wales: In the capital Cardiff, a 16-year-old boy raped a married mother on her way home from a pub. A youth court in Cardiff tried the crime and has now sentenced the teenager to five years in prison and four years probation.
In June, the perpetrator and victim (the identities of both are being kept secret) met by chance: The woman was walking along a busy street, North Road, after a night out at the pub with family and friends. Her later tormentor came towards her in the opposite direction.
Perpetrator ambushed her on a green strip
Investigating prosecutor James Hartson then reconstructed the further course of events in court as follows: “After they had passed each other, the defendant changed direction and began to run after the victim, now in the same direction as her. The prosecution believes that the defendant, having recognised her as a drunken and vulnerable single woman, decided at that moment to rape her and therefore began to follow her.”
Eventually he overtook her and waited for her on a grass verge. He chose this place as the scene of his crime. Depressing: Based on the victim’s statements, the court found that the drunken woman initially assumed that the teenager wanted to help her when he suddenly put his arm around her from the side.
Her memory only returned in the middle of the crime: In court, the traumatized woman reported that she had been lying on her back while the perpetrator leaned over her and raped her.
Perpetrator claimed that everything was consensual
The crime was reported to the police on the night of the attack. After analyzing surveillance videos, the perpetrator was finally arrested the following day in his parents’ house.
According to court documents, he reacted calmly to the accusations: the woman smiled at him as she passed by. They eventually kissed and then had consensual sex.
Depressing statement from the victim
However, the victim’s statements tell a completely different story. In a statement read out by the public prosecutor, the woman said that the evening had “changed her life forever” and that she was “desperate and sad” that she had lost “a part of who I was”. It “filled her with fear” that her life would never be the same again.
The defendant was convicted of rape sentenced to a total of nine years. After two thirds of the prison sentence, a parole board will decide whether he can be released.