{"id":89470,"date":"2024-01-10T05:02:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T05:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/fiji-rugby-player-api-ratuniyarawa-sentenced-to-two-years-and-10-months-in-prison-for-sexual-offences-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2024-01-10T05:02:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T05:02:54","slug":"fiji-rugby-player-api-ratuniyarawa-sentenced-to-two-years-and-10-months-in-prison-for-sexual-offences-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/fiji-rugby-player-api-ratuniyarawa-sentenced-to-two-years-and-10-months-in-prison-for-sexual-offences-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiji rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for sexual offences | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fiji rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for sexual offences | UK News<\/h2>\n

Fiji rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for sexual offences | UK News<\/p>\n

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An international rugby player who had been due to play for the Barbarians has been sentenced to two years and 10 months for a series of sexual offences.<\/p>\n

Api Ratuniyarawa, 37, admitted two counts of assault by penetration and one charge of sexual assault at a hearing in December in relation to three young women.<\/p>\n

The Fiji lock had been due to feature on the bench for the Barbarians in their match against Wales<\/strong> at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff<\/strong> on 4 November 2023.<\/p>\n

Cardiff Crown Court previously heard the offences took place between 31 October and 2 November last year.<\/p>\n

Ratuniyarawa, who lives in Northamptonshire, denied two further charges of sexual assault relating to one of the three women.<\/p>\n

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The court previously heard the father-of-four had been without a club since the summer when premiership side London Irish went into receivership.<\/p>\n

A sentencing hearing on Tuesday was told Ratuniyarawa had travelled to Cardiff ahead of the Barbarians match, “to attend media commitments and training for the fixture”.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting, Heath Edwards KC said “the defendant appears to have spent many of his nights socialising” in the week prior to the game.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said Ratuniyarawa attended the Revolution bar in Cardiff on the evenings of 31 October, 1 November and 2 November.<\/p>\n

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The court was shown CCTV footage of all three incidents from the bar’s VIP area.<\/p>\n

One of his victims read her impact statement in court.<\/p>\n

“My attack came out of the blue. It was sudden, shocking,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I feel degraded, embarrassed and humiliated. I still do.”<\/p>\n

She said the incident had “started not just to impact [her] but [her] family”.<\/p>\n

“I should be excited to be going out with my friends, but I can’t stop thinking about what has happened,” she added.<\/p>\n

“He’s ruined my life by what he’s done, and I feel like I’m in my own personal hell.”<\/p>\n

She told the court she had been “such an independent person” prior to the incident.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t shower until I’d been examined and all I wanted to do was wash that man off me,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This man had his whole career ahead of him, and such a high-profile person. He did this to me.”<\/p>\n

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In mitigation, Ruth Smith KC said the defendant would like to apologise for his actions but that he had “limited recollection” of the incidents.<\/p>\n

“The defendant would like, through me, as an initial statement, to apologise to each of the victims in this case,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The consumption of alcohol for him in such quantities was completely out of character.”<\/p>\n

Ms Smith told the court Ratuniyarawa had “never drunk that much before in his entire life”.<\/p>\n

“This incident fell at a time of upheaval in the personal life of the defendant,” she added.<\/p>\n

“He was without employment. He is a gentlemen that supports not only his immediate family financially, but a range of others financially. And it resulted in a situation of stress for him,” Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Former Post Office boss to hand back CBE ‘with immediate effect’
2023 was world’s hottest year on record – and on 2024 could be worse
Coroner issues update on Sinead O’Connor’s cause of death<\/strong><\/p>\n

The court heard the defendant had been described “by those that run Fiji Rugby as a dedicated and valuable asset”.<\/p>\n

“He knows his legacy is forever tarnished with behaviour that is reflected in these counts,” Ms Smith added.<\/p>\n

“He has not only let himself down, his family, but also his country in respect of his behaviour.”<\/p>\n

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke also granted a restraining order of three years in relation to one of the victims.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Fiji rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for sexual offences | UK News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fiji rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for sexual offences | UK News Fiji rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for sexual offences | UK News An international rugby player who had been due to play for the Barbarians has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7711],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7711"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}