A London security guard was arrested after he allegedly raped a young woman who climbed into his car after mistaking it for a taxi. Sola Warikwah, 39, will serve seven years behind bars for driving the woman from an East London curbside to an empty parking lot he covered during his shifts and forcing himself on her. While he claimed the sex they had was consensual, the victim insisted otherwise, The Mirror reports.
- The victim fell asleep in the back of the car. The unnamed victim said she was a lesbian and that after falling asleep in the car, she woke up to find the man raping her. The woman, who’s in her 20s, also told Southwark Crown Court that she texted a friend immediately after the incident, writing, “I’ve been raped. I feel sick. This taxi won’t take me home.”
- The victim managed to take photos of the suspect. It was these photos that helped to eventually convict the man, along with the CCTV footage of his work vehicle entering the car park on the night of the attack.
- The trial only lasted a week. While Warikwah pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, the jury decided otherwise and convicted him for the offense. The judge described him as “dangerous” and as a “Jekyll and Hyde character” after two other women attempted to provide character references to clear his name.
- Warikwah completely deceived the victim. The court heard that the victim was in Bethnal Green when she entered a taxi but was thrown out for being sick. It was then she got into Warikwah’s car and instead of correcting her, he allowed her to believe he was a taxi and would get her home safely. “It’s an abuse of trust. He must have, if not impersonated, then allowed her to sustain the impression he was a taxi driver,” prosecutor Paul Casey told the court. “She was locked in at least for those minutes. It does amount to not quite abduction, but to prolonged detention and sustained over the period of time the rape took place whilst stationary in the NCP car park.”
- The victim is still suffering from the trauma of the attack. She said in a victim impact statement: “Since the attack my life has been turned upside down. I still don’t know how I will overcome it and be 100% the person I was before. Initially I did not want to be in my body and on bad days I still don’t. The assault made it difficult to keep my mind strong and my thoughts healthy.” She went on to reveal that she’s currently in therapy and suffers from severe anxiety and paranoia.
