Nigerian oil engineer jailed 7 years for rape in Scotland

A Nigerian oil and gas engineer has been jailed for seven years over the rape of a teenager student in Aberdeen.

The High Court in Glasgow heard how Kufre Uwem, who took a wife in a lavish wedding in Akwa Ibom State in December 2017,  held the 18-year-old woman against her will at his flat, removed her clothing and raped her.

The 34-year-old subsea project engineer was also convicted of intending to rape a second woman in her own flat.

The offences took place on October 18, 2012, and October 30, 2016.

Uwem, who was staying in the Stoneywood area of the city, continues to protest his innocence.

While sentencing him to jail, Judge Lord Arthurson,

“Your first victim was an 18-year-old first year university student who had met you by chance in Aberdeen city centre on the evening of 17 October 2012. That night you took her to your flat where you assaulted her and raped her.

“In a detailed victim impact statement she has described the ‘monumental impact’ which your crime had on her life for a period of years. You subjected your second victim, on 30 October 2016, again in Aberdeen, to a degrading penetrative sexual assault to injury with intent to rape, in her own flat.

“You had no criminal convictions prior to these offences. Your two post-offence convictions are of a relatively minor and non-analogous nature and I will treat you today as a first offender. The criminal justice social work report prepared for this sentencing hearing makes plain that you accept no level of responsibility for your crimes.

“I have listened carefully to the submissions advanced in mitigation this morning by your counsel, and take into account everything that has been said on your behalf in imposing sentence upon you. On any view, the consequences of this conviction for your personal, family and working life are truly catastrophic.

Uwem, who has an MSc in pipe engineering, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register.