Nigerian Club Bouncer jailed in the UK for raping a woman in her own home

34-year-old Nigerian, Idreez Popoola, has been sentenced to seven years in prison after he attacked a woman in her home in Northampton on December 29 last year, after meeting her while working as an agency-employed bouncer outside Bar So in the town centre.

Northampton Crown Court heard Popoola should have been deported in 2006 after his temporary UK visa expired, but he was granted temporary leave to stay in the country, after being arrested in 2011, because he had a wife and children in the country.

Gordon Aspden, prosecuting, said Popoola’s application to stay in the country was refused in December 2011, but he then appealed this decision in January 2012.

Mr Aspden said Popoola, a Nigerian national, arranged to meet his victim at a McDonald’s restaurant in Northampton and the pair then went to a pub.

Popoola, of Croydon, then persuaded the woman to take him back to her home and, giving evidence during a four-day trial last month, she said 
she was reassured by the fact he was bouncer and thought he would have been subject to background security checks.

The court heard that almost as soon as he was inside the woman’s house, Popoola made strong sexual advances and forced himself on her.

A victim impact statement revealed the woman had suffered depression since the attack and had also been forced to move address as she felt her home had been ‘violated’ by Popoola.

Judge Lynn Tayton, sentencing, said: “It was a serious aggravating factor that the rape took place in the victim’s own home as this was an abuse of the trust placed in you by the victim and has undermined her feelings of safety in her own space.”