Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Serial sex attacker appeals conviction
A convicted rapist who carried out a series of sex attacks in Dundee is preparing to lodge an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Jason Okwara, 45, was sentenced to nine years in prison in December after he targeted three women in the city between 2004 and 2012.
The rapist had originally pleaded not guilty to all the charges, forcing his victims to give evidence and relive the horror of the attacks.
A single judge will now decide whether the appeal can go to a full hearing, which could ultimately result in the court ordering a retrial or acquitting the accused.
The first attack occurred on a “particularly vulnerable” woman at a property in Broughty Ferry in 2004.
She was asleep at the time having previously told Okwara she did not want to have sex.
It was stated she was “incapable of giving or withholding consent”.
The 45-year-old struck five years later at a different address in the city. During December’s trial at the High Court in Glasgow, jurors heard how the victim “simply froze” as he told her “your body says yes” while he raped her.
His third victim was later molested in August 2012.
The victim said she believed he only stopped when she shouted at him.
Okawara was finally caught during a probe into the attack years later.
Speaking at the trial, Judge Lady Rae said at the end of Okawara’s trial that he appeared to believe he had an “entitlement” to women.
The judge went on to add he had “shown no remorse” whilst still maintaining his innocence.
One of Okwara’s victims was recently reinstated by HMRC after she was let go just weeks after giving evidence at the trial last year.
The 48-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of three women targeted by Okwara in Dundee between 2004 and 2012.
The victim lost her job as an HMRC call handler amid allegations she took too many sick days off work in the run-up to last November’s trial.
She had been set to launch legal action against HMRC but now the tax bosses have U-turned and reinstated the woman.
Speaking previously, her solicitor Ryan Russell, of Muir, Myles and Laverty, said “justice has been served”.