London:
British grime musician Solo 45 was sentenced Thursday to 24 years in prison for raping four women in what police said was among the most violent sexual behaviour they had seen. The rapper, whose real name is Andy Anokye, was convicted of 30 charges, including 21 rapes and five counts of false imprisonment.
Anokye claimed his violent acts — waterboarding, interrogating, assaulting and raping his victims — were part of consensual role play. But a jury at Bristol Crown Court in southwest England convicted him in March of all but one charge against him. Sentencing him on Thursday, judge William Hart said Anokye had “no empathy” for the women he abused.
Detective Superintendent Lisa Simpson of Avon and Somerset Police said Anokye’s offenses were “some of the most violent sexual behaviour” the force had seen. “We cannot begin to understand what each individual victim has gone through,” she said.
Anokye, 33, was signed to Island Records and was part of the grime collective Boy Better Know. The judge said none of the other members of Boy Better Know “knew of your dark side and they are in no way tainted by your misdeeds which were carried out in a wholly private and hidden way.”
