A Ugandan rugby international who claimed asylum in Wales has been jailed for four and a half years for raping a woman in Cardiff.
Philip Pariyo, 32, who represented Uganda in Rugby Sevens at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, attacked the woman in a flat in June 2021.
Cardiff Crown Court heard how Pariyo had become close friends with the victim after meeting her at a funeral in 2019, before later subjecting her to what the judge called an “appalling attack”.
The former athlete, who worked as a waste management worker for Cardiff Council, had repeatedly denied the offence but was found guilty in December 2024.
Philip Pariyo has been jailed for four and a half years
Glamorgan Wanders/South Wales Police
The court heard that on the night of the attack, Pariyo had “badgered” the woman for sex, which she refused.
He ignored her refusal and proceeded to rape her.
The following morning, the pair went to a chemist to buy the morning after pill, where Pariyo suggested buying condoms, implying he wanted to have sex with her again that day.
The attack took place while two other people were staying in the city flat – including Pariyo’s girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time.
In a powerful victim impact statement read to the court, the woman described the devastating effects of the attack.
“No one in the world should go through what I did, fighting and begging for my life. It has left lasting impacts on me, and has felt like an open wound that I can never heal from,” she said.
She added: “It’s made me feel dirty, numb and tainted. He invaded my body by force and branded me from within. He became an unwanted part of my body that I can’t get rid of.”
“No one should fight like their life depends on it for something as simple as consent,” the statement concluded.
Pariyo first came to the UK as part of Uganda’s Rugby Sevens team for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He disappeared after the Games’ closing ceremony, prompting anger from Uganda’s sports minister who vowed to find him.
Philip Pariyo claimed asylum in Wales after fearing persecution in Uganda
South Wales Police
The following year, he emerged in Cardiff where he claimed asylum, saying he feared persecution in Uganda after being accused of being homosexual – which is illegal in the country.
He went on to play for St Peter’s Rugby Club in Roath while working as a binman for Cardiff Council.
Despite his asylum claim being based on others’ accusations that Pariyo was homosexual, he later had a pregnant girlfriend in Cardiff.
Sentencing Pariyo, Judge Celia Hughes said: “Someone with your physical strength and who played at such a high level in your sport should act as a role model to others. But instead you manhandled this woman as entirely as you wished.”
Philip Pariyo played for Glamorgan Wanderers as well as working as a binman
Glamorgan Wanderers
The judge noted he had pleaded not guilty despite admitting to the sex in text messages.
“She will never be the same strong confident woman she was before she came to Cardiff to see you, because of your sexual greed,” Judge Hughes added.
The court heard the four-and-a-half year sentence would “adversely affect” Pariyo’s asylum claim.
He will serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody before being released on licence.