Fiji international Ratuniyarawa sentenced to prison for sexual assault

Api Ratuniyarawa a été condamné mardi à deux ans et dix mois de prison. MAXPPP – Brain Lawless

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.

The Fijian rugby international Api Ratuniyarawa, who played for the 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.

"Under the influence of alcohol"

These offenses were "aggravated because you were under the influence of alcohol" and that "you only stopped because others intervened", the judge told him when announcing his sentence. However, she noted "remorse and shame" voiced by the player.

Ratuniyarawa, who passed through 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 dismissed two other counts of sexual assault concerning one of the three women, which had been accepted by the prosecution. In addition to his prison sentence, he will be placed on the register of those convicted of sexual crimes for ten years.