The attacks committed on three young women aged 19 took place between October 31 and November 2.
Fijian rugby international Api Ratuniyarawa, who played for French clubs Agen and Bayonne, was sentenced Tuesday to two years and ten months in prison for several sexual assaults by a court in Cardiff, Wales. The attacks committed on three young women aged 19 took place between October 31 and November 2, before a match between the Barbarians and Wales in which he should have participated on November 4 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
They occurred in the VIP area of a bar in Cardiff where the 37-year-old second row had already spent his evenings before this match, the prosecution described during the trial. These offenses were “aggravated because you were under the influence of alcohol” and “you only stopped because others intervened“, the judge told him while announcing her sentence. However, she noted “remorse and shame» expressed by the player.
Placed for ten years on the register of those convicted of sexual crimes
Ratuniyarawa, who played for Agen and Northampton, was hired by the French club Bayonne last July as a World Cup joker after his club London Irish went into liquidation. His contract was terminated in October when he was called up to Fiji’s squad for the World Cup as a substitute.
During his appearance last month, he pleaded guilty to counts of assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault, but denied two other counts of sexual assault concerning one of the three women , which was accepted by the prosecution. In addition to his prison sentence, he will be placed on the register of those convicted of sex crimes for ten years.
