Mum sacked for taking time off after sex attack
A VICTIM of sexual assault claimed she was sacked by HM Revenue & Customs after taking too many sick days to give evidence against her attacker.
The 48-year-old was one of three women targeted by rapist Jason Okwara, who was sentenced to nine years in jail last month after he had ‘shown no remorse’.
The mother of two worked as a call handler for HMRC for two-and-a-half years but said she lost her job after taking too many sick days off work in the lead-up to the trial in November last year.
In an interview with a newspaper she claims her bosses were aware of the case and the stress it was causing her but ignored it.
The victim, who was attacked by US-born Okwara in 2012, told the Daily Record: ‘The attack has affected me and my partner very badly – we have really struggled to deal with it.
‘At the start of last year, I was told I would have to give evidence at Okwara’s trial in November. I was very worried about it and my health and work suffered even more.
‘I told my line manager about the case and the effect it was having on me, something the HMRC are now denying.’
The woman nearly took her own life last July but was saved by her teenage son.
She said: ‘I sat on the back step of the house. My son found me before I could do anything.’
Okwara was convicted of raping two women and sexually assaulting the mother between 2004 and 2012 in Dundee.
The 45-year-old pleaded not guilty to all charges, which forced his victims to give evidence and relive the horror of the attacks.
His cycle of abuse between 2004 and 2012 took place at different addresses in the city.
The victim said: ‘No one warned me how terrifying giving evidence would be. Okwara’s lawyer stood like a matador and I was his bull. It was like I was the one on trial.
‘When I finished giving evidence, I left the courtroom and collapsed crying in the corridor.’
The first rape occurred on a ‘particularly vulnerable’ woman in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, in 2004.
She was asleep at the time, having previously told Okwara she did not want to have sex.
Okwara struck again five years later when his victim ‘simply froze’ as he told her ‘your body says yes’ while raping her.
He molested the mother in August 2012. She believed he only stopped when she shouted at him.
Describing the mother’s case, judge Lady Rae told Okwara at the High Court in Glasgow: ‘Her victim impact statement discloses that your conduct has had a considerable effect on her mental well-being and self-esteem.’
According to the newspaper, the woman’s dismissal letter said she had taken 79 days of sickness absence in the 12 months up to September 2017.
The letter states she ‘did not advise her absences may be linked to the serious sexual assault’.
A HMRC spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on individual staff members.
‘We are committed to treating all our staff fairly and with consideration at all times.’