Canberra man Chidi Okwechime described as ‘deranged animal’ in rape trial
A woman who says she was raped by a man she met in a Canberra nightclub last year has described him as a ‘deranged animal’.
Key points:
- The woman said Chidi Okwechime offered to take her to a party with another couple, but when she arrived there was no party.
- She says she repeatedly told him to stop, but he raped her
- Mr Okwechime’s lawyer, Steven Whybrow, told the jury that his client had denied many of the allegations and said what happened had happened with his consent.
Chidi Okwechime, 34, is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court on four counts of rape and one count of suffocation.
During a police interview in front of the jury, the woman broke down as she described what she said was an aggressive attack that left her with bruises and a damaged rib.
The woman told police she went to a 21st costume party, where the theme was to come as the person you’d like to be found dead with, and she was dressed as Pulp Fiction’s Mia Wallace.
She said after the party she met a friend at a nightclub, before going to the now closed Kokomos club.
The court heard that it was there that she met a group of men, including Mr Okwechime.
The woman admitted to police that she had made a line of cocaine in the toilet, when she dropped her phone.
But she said the bar staff wouldn’t help her load it to make it work.
She said she then went to another nightclub with the group.
It was then that Mr Okwechime offered to take her to a party with another couple, where she could charge her phone.
But she told the police when she got there, there was no party.
The other couple entered a bedroom before she was assaulted.
She said she repeatedly asked Mr. Okwechime to stop.
“I kept thinking ‘I’m being raped, I’m being raped, I’m being raped,'” she said.
She alleged that Mr. Okwechime berated her for resisting.
“I burst into hysterical tears… I didn’t consent to any of this.”
She told police that Mr. Okwechime also tried to suffocate her.
“I felt like my eyeballs were swelling,” she said.
But Mr Okwechime’s lawyer, Steven Whybrow, told the jury that his client had denied many of the allegations and said what happened had happened with his consent.
Mr Whybrow said a bruise on the woman’s neck was what is colloquially known as a ‘love bite’.