UK-based Ghanaian Grime artist Andy Anokye, known by the showbiz name Solo 45, has been sentenced to 24 years in jail for imprisoning and repeatedly raping four women.
He was found guilty of 21 rapes, five counts of false imprisonment, two counts of assault by penetration and two of actual bodily harm.
Anokye – who was part of grime collective Boy Better Know and collaborated with the likes of Stormzy and Wiley – waterboarded, interrogated and raped the women.
The 33-year-old claimed it was consensual role play, or a game he played called “catch me, rape me”.
The crimes took place over a two-year-period.
Distressing footage was found on Anokye’s phone when police arrested him in 2017 following a rape complaint.
Video played during the Bristol trial showed him interrogating women about previous sexual partners, slapping them, insulting them and raping them.
One victim had a shotgun held to her head, the trial heard.
Another was forced to lie in a bath of freezing water, and Anokye also held cloths covered in bleach to the women’s faces.
Another woman told the jury a mobile phone was forced down her throat.
Anokye told the court during evidence that he had dacryphilia – sexual arousal from tears and sobbing.
He must spend at least 24 years in prison and five on licence, said judge William Hart, who told him he had “no sexual boundaries or empathy for those concerned”.
He said the rapper had “become addicted” to the “perverted pleasure” he gained from abusing his victims and that none of his fellow musicians knew about his “dark side”.
More than two million digital files were examined from Anokye’s phones and computers to help bring him to justice, said the Crown Prosecution Service’s Jill Macnamara.
“I would like to thank all of the women who came forward to tell of their traumatic experiences with this man,” she said.
“They include the four women he was convicted of raping and assaulting, and a fifth who provided valuable supporting evidence, whose own allegation could not be prosecuted as it happened abroad.”
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