Rugby player Api Ratuniyarawa of Fiji was given a two-year and ten-month jail sentence for sexual offenses.
In a December hearing involving three young females, Api Ratuniyarawa, 37, pleaded guilty to one act of sexual assault and two counts of assault by penetration.The Barbarians were slated to face Wales on November 4, 2023, in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. The Fijian lock was set to start the game from the bench.
Prior to this, Cardiff Crown Court heard that the offences took place between October 31 and November 2, last year.Ratuniyarawa, a Northamptonshire resident, denied two more allegations of sexual assault against one of the three women.
The father of four had been without a club since the summer, when Premiership club London Irish fell into receivership, the court had heard.Ratuniyarawa was told at his sentence hearing on Tuesday that he had come to Cardiff “to attend media commitments and training for the fixture” before to the Barbarians game.
The prosecutor, Heath Edwards KC, indicated a week before the game that “the defendant appears to have spent many of his nights socializing.”Ratuniyarawa, according to the prosecution, visited the Revolution bar in Cardiff on the evenings of October 31, November 1, and November 2.
The court was shown CCTV footage from all three incidents captured in the bar’s VIP section.In court, a victim of his read an impact statement.”My assault was unexpected. It was surprising and frightening,” she remarked.”I feel humiliated, ashamed, and degraded.” “I still do.”
“Started not just to impact [her], but [her] family,” she said of the tragedy.”I should be excited to be going out with my friends, but I can’t stop thinking about what has happened,” she told me.”He’s ruined my life by what he’s done, and I feel like I’m in my own personal hell.”
In court, she stated that she was “such an independent person” before to the incident.”I couldn’t shower until I’d been examined and all I wanted to do was wash that man off me,” she said.”This man was a well-known figure who had his entire career ahead of him. “This is what he did to me.”
Ruth Smith KC, the mitigation expert, noted that despite the defendant’s “limited recollection” of the events, he wishes to apologize for his actions.”The defendant would like, through me, as an initial statement, to apologise to each of the victims in this case,” she went on to say.”The consumption of alcohol for him in such quantities was completely out of character.”
Ratuniyarawa had “never drunk that much before in his entire life,” Ms. Smith told the court.”This incident fell at a time of upheaval in the personal life of the defendant,” the lawyer said.”He did not have a job. He is a guy who helps many others, including his own family, with their finances. And that put him in a tense situation,” Ms. Smith explained.