Nigerian man jailed for 17 years after raping woman in Wales

A 20-year-old woman has shared the story of how a Nigerian man attacked her in a wooded area in Wrexham, Wales. This happened after he offered to walk her home from a night out.

The woman, who wants to stay anonymous, talked about the attack that took place on September 7, 2025. Her account was published by the Daily Mail on Wednesday.

Gift Oladele, 24, received a 17-year prison sentence in April after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault. He approached the teenager while she was on her way home and said he was going in the same direction, then offered to walk with her.

When they reached a quiet area, he covered her mouth and dragged her into the woods. "He was a lot bigger than I was, I tried pushing him away, but he overpowered me," she said.

"He was covering my mouth. I was trying to get his arm off me, but he wasn’t budging. That’s when he raped me violently," she explained. The woman feared for her life during the attack, especially when Oladele asked if it was her first time being raped.

"My brain just switched into survival mode, it was weird. It was either I do what he says, and I get home to my mum, or he is going to kill me," she said. After the assault, Oladele hit her six times on the head and left bruises on her body before she reported what happened.

"When he finished, he turned around and said, ‘I think you’ve had enough now. At least you have been raped by someone good-looking,’" she recalled. Oladele also threatened to find her if she reported the rape and said he would take photos of her and post them online.

But when she got home around 3.30am, she told her parents about the attack. Her father quickly called the police. "I felt numb. I was hysterical. My brain couldn’t figure out what had just happened," she said.

The next day, police arrested Oladele at his cousin’s home in Wrexham. They found that he had tried to hide a mobile phone, which later showed searches related to sexual attacks.

PUNCH reported in April that Oladele was sentenced at Caernarfon Crown Court to a total of 25 years. This included 17 years in prison and an eight-year extended licence period. He was convicted at Mold Crown Court in March after denying rape and sexual assault, claiming the victim had given consent.

He also got an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a restraining order that protects the victim for life. At the time of the attack, Oladele was already on bail for another rape allegation in Manchester from November 2024. He had also been jailed in 2022 for a sexually motivated attack.

Oladele, a Nigerian citizen born in Italy, avoided deportation to Nigeria after fighting his removal based on human rights. After his earlier prison sentence, UK authorities tried to deport him, but he appealed, claiming that his removal would violate his right to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

An immigration tribunal ruled in his favour, saying deportation would be unfair. The Home Office later made two appeals, both of which were turned down. The victim’s mother questioned this decision, asking, "Where are my daughter’s rights? That’s what I want to know. She has the right to walk home after a night out without being raped."

Wrexham Chief Inspector Caroline Mullen-Hurst called Oladele “a dangerous predator” and commended the victim for her bravery in reporting the crime. She said, "He demonstrated no remorse for his crimes after forcing her to relive the traumatic experience through a trial."

The woman said the assault still impacts her mental and physical health, making it hard for her to eat. "There were numerous times a day when I would be hysterically crying because I didn’t want to be here anymore," she said.