Western Mail

Disgraced Princeton rugby player jailed for raping two women

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A PROFESSION­AL rugby player expelled from Princeton University for committing a sex attack has been jailed for 18 years after raping two women in London.

Paulo Kretteis, 22, earned a scholarshi­p to the Ivy League university, in New Jersey – but was thrown out in May 2019 after a proven allegation of “non-consensual sexual intercours­e” following an internal investigat­ion, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

The dual Brazilian national, who had been selected for Brazil’s under21s rugby team, was found guilty of raping two women and making a threat to kill following a trial in January.

Kretteis, of Northolt, west London, who played rugby profession­ally for the Ealing Trailfinde­rs, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasionin­g actual bodily harm (ABH).

Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh jailed him for a total of 18 years yesterday with a five-year period on extended licence.

He told Kretteis: “In both their cases they were in no position whatsoever to resist the violence, both sexual and physical, you inflicted on them by reason of your considerab­le size and strength.”

The judge said his expulsion from

Princeton had been the “most plain and unambiguou­s warning” about his behaviour towards women.

“It is a measure of your arrogance and lack of respect for women that, instead of being deterred by what happened in America, you went on to commit the offences for which I have to sentence you today,” he said.

Kretteis had been on a night out with his team-mates when he targeted his first victim.

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