Rapist filmed crime and shared footage on Facebook
A 22-YEAR-OLD man who raped a young woman as she slept, recorded the incident then shared the footage on a Facebook group chat was sentenced yesterday.
Daryl Concepcion flew from London to Northern Ireland to party with an 18-year old woman and two female friends who also travelled from England for the social occasion.
He admitted raping the 18-year-old woman at a house in Belfast in August 2017 when she was, according to Judge Stephen Fowler QC, “vulnerable in that she was under the influence of alcohol, unconscious and incapable of consent”.
Concepcion, from Michigan Avenue in London, was handed a sentence of three-and-a-half years after appearing at Belfast Crown Court via a video-link from Maghaberry.
He was told by the Belfast Recorder that he will spend half the sentence in prison followed by 21 months on licence. He was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for eight years and placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.
Concepcion travelled to Northern Ireland where he met the victim, who he had been introduced to online the month before. The group went to a house in Co Antrim that evening, and the following day they went to Belfast where they met a male friend of one of the women.
Around 6pm on August 4 all five then went to a house in the city, where a party resumed and drink was taken. At the party, the victim had consensual sex with the male friend in a bedroom, and was then sick.
When she woke the following morning, she recalled Concepcion being in the room at some point and of sitting at the end of the bed. She couldn’t recall where the other male was, but remembered asking Concepcion to have sex with her.
She also recalled Concepcion saying he didn’t want to have sex with her as they were “more like brother and sister”.
The group left the house and returned to Co Antrim, and when the woman woke on the morning of August 6, she received a Facebook message from a male who told her there were pictures of her.
She accessed Concepcion’s Facebook account where she found a video of Concepcion having sex with her. Whilst it isn’t clear how widely the footage was distributed, Conception sent it to a group chat on Facebook messenger.
Judge Fowler said the woman had no memory of having sex with the defendant and was “very clearly seen to be asleep, which makes it impossible for her to have consented to any activity”.
The woman contacted the police immediately and was taken to the Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre, while Concepcion was arrested in Co Antrim.
He initially refused to answer questions but in a pre-prepared statement he claimed any sexual activity between him and the woman had been consensual. He later admitted a charge of rape.
In a report the victim gave to police, the woman said she has been left in a depressed and anxious state and has sought counselling.
Branding filming the incident then putting the footage on a group chat as an aggravating factor, Judge Fowler spoke of the woman’s vulnerable condition.
Turning to Concepcion, the Judge revealed he was originally from the Philippines before moving to the UK with his mother. He left school with no qualifications and worked in the food retail industry but was “financially dependant on his mother”.
The Recorder said Concepcion’s
plea was welcomed as it spared the victim the ordeal of travelling from England to Northern Ireland to give evidence at a trial.
Saying he was also taking into account Concepcion’s lack of maturity at the time of the offence and his clear record, Judge Fowler imposed the sentence of three years and six months.
Detectives welcomed the conviction paying tribute to the woman’s “immense courage in seeing this investigation through to a successful conclusion”.
Detective Constable May said: “I hope that their tenacity and resolution to bring this man to justice will encourage anyone else who has experienced any form of sexual abuse to come forward to police.”