A Bridgend man who raped a woman after she told him repeatedly “we’re not having sex” has been jailed for three years and five months.
Daffydd Piper, 21, of Maes y Felin, Wildmill, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday, South Wales Police said. He was also given a five-year restraining order and must sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
‘Just get off’
The court heard the pair had kissed and there had been consensual contact, but the woman told Piper they were not going to have sex and kept saying so. He lifted her onto his hips, and when she said she was getting off he climbed on top of her and raped her as she told him “What are you doing? Just get off.”
She tried to push him away and he pushed her down into the bed, prosecutor Julia Cox said. Immediately afterwards the woman “swung for him”.
She later messaged him on Snapchat: “I said no and stop, why did you carry on?” Piper replied that he did not know and “I’m sorry, I should have stopped”.
She wrote back: “I was raped, I want you to remember that. I want you to take responsibility for what you did.”
Told police she was ‘malicious’
When he was arrested, Piper told officers the sex had been consensual and the woman was being malicious. He pleaded not guilty, then changed his plea to guilty to one count of rape when the case came before Cardiff Crown Court on 24 July. He had no previous convictions.
Detective Constable Lucy Weaver said: “An extensive amount of work went into this investigation which we believe gave Piper no option other than to plead guilty and therefore prevented the victim from having to give evidence in court.”
‘I wake up with nightmares’
The woman read her own statement to the court. Since the attack, she said, she could not leave the house without anxiety, had isolated herself from friends and could not sleep: “I wake up with nightmares of being raped. I never had dreams like this before.”
“I was very outgoing and being out with my friends enjoying life,” she said. “I thought people looked at me like a rape victim.” She told the court he “could tell I was vulnerable and took advantage of this. I will never forgive him for what he did to me.”
Kat Roxburgh, defending, said Piper was a teenager at the time, has been diagnosed with autism and ADHD, accepts he did wrong and “sincerely apologises” to the woman.
Sentencing him, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: “Rape is rape and only a custody sentence for it can be justified.”
DC Weaver said the bravery it takes to report offences like this “is not to be underestimated”, and that the force hoped the sentence “will go some way in helping the victim rebuild her life”.
Anyone who has been sexually abused and is not ready to report it to police can find support services through South Wales Police’s rape and sexual assault advice pages, or by calling the Rape Crisis 24-hour line on 0808 500 2222.
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