Ugandan rugby player bags jail term for rape

A former Ugandan rugby player who sought asylum in Wales, Philip Pariyo, has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for raping a woman in Cardiff, United Kingdom.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Pariyo, 32, had developed a friendship with the woman before attacking her in a flat in June 2021.

Despite consistently denying the charge, he was found guilty in December 2024. In a letter to Judge Celia Hughes, he expressed remorse, stating he was “genuinely sorry to those who suffered from my actions.”

The survivor shared a harrowing impact statement, detailing the lasting physical and emotional trauma the assault had inflicted upon her. “No one in the world should go through what I did, fighting and begging for my life. It has left lasting impacts on me and has felt like an open wound that I can never heal from,” she said.

Pariyo originally arrived in the UK in 2014 as part of Uganda’s Rugby Sevens team for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. However, he disappeared after the event and later surfaced in Cardiff, where he claimed asylum, citing fear of persecution in Uganda due to accusations of homosexuality.

Judge Hughes condemned the attack, describing it as an “appalling violation” of a woman he once called a friend.

She also highlighted how Pariyo’s refusal to plead guilty forced the survivor to endure a trial. “Someone with your physical strength and who played at such a high level in your sport should act as a role model. But instead, you manhandled this woman as entirely as you wished,” she stated.

The judge further noted that Pariyo’s conviction would negatively impact his asylum claim.