A 27-year-old Nigerian student is facing a likely prison term after a jury at Hull Crown Court convicted him of attempted rape and sexual assault – a verdict that could end his academic career in Britain and trigger the cancellation of his student visa.
Qudus Ajeyemi, who was studying in Manchester, was found guilty by a majority of ten to two on the attempted rape charge and unanimously on the sexual assault count. He now awaits sentencing, with legal experts noting that convictions of this nature almost invariably carry custodial sentences under English law. A prison term would also activate automatic immigration consequences, placing his right to remain in the United Kingdom in immediate jeopardy.
The case drew attention not only for the severity of the offences but for the chain of events that led to its prosecution — a chain that, at a critical moment, nearly broke entirely.
HOW HE WAS CONVICTED
The prosecution’s case rested on two decisive elements: the condition of the complainant at the time of the assault, and digital evidence that Ajeyemi himself created in its aftermath.
The complainant had been drinking heavily on the night in question. Under British law, a person whose capacity to consent has been substantially impaired by alcohol cannot, in legal terms, be said to have given informed consent to sexual activity. That threshold was central to the Crown’s argument.
But it was the digital trail that rendered Ajeyemi’s defence untenable. Shortly after the assault, he made a FaceTime call to the complainant in which he stated plainly that he admitted everything and acknowledged he had done wrong. He followed that call with a series of text messages in an apologetic tone. Prosecutors placed both before the jury as contemporaneous admissions – made before lawyers were involved, before a defence narrative had been constructed, in the unguarded moments immediately following the offence.
The defence argued that the sexual contact had been consensual. The jury, after deliberating for eight hours and 36 minutes, rejected that account. The ten-to-two split on the attempted rape charge reflects the weight of the digital evidence against Ajeyemi’s version of events. The unanimous verdict on sexual assault left no ambiguity.
A REPORT THAT ALMOST DID NOT HAPPEN
The complainant, it emerged during proceedings, had initially been reluctant to go to the police. Her hesitation was not rooted in uncertainty about what had happened to her – it was rooted in concern about what a criminal investigation might do to Ajeyemi’s education and his immigration status in the United Kingdom.
That she ultimately did report the assault meant the case was prosecuted and a jury was able to reach its verdicts. Had she not, Ajeyemi would have faced no legal consequences whatsoever.
The case now passes to the sentencing stage. For Qudus Ajeyemi, the judicial reckoning is imminent. The academic career that brought him to Britain, the visa that allowed him to stay, and the freedom he has known – all of it now rests in the hands of the court.
