A Ugandan rugby player who sought asylum in Wales has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being found guilty of raping a woman in Cardiff.
Philip Pariyo, 32, who had claimed asylum in the UK on the grounds of facing persecution in Uganda, attacked the woman in June 2021.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that he had built a close friendship with her before sexually assaulting her in a flat. Despite his repeated denials, a jury convicted him of rape in December 2024.
Pariyo originally arrived in the UK in 2014 as part of the Ugandan Rugby Sevens team for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He disappeared after the event and later resurfaced in Cardiff, where he claimed asylum, citing fears of returning to Uganda due to allegations of homosexuality—a crime in his home country.
He subsequently integrated into the local community, playing for St Peter’s Rugby Club in Roath and later working as a waste management worker for Cardiff Council.
During sentencing, Judge Celia Hughes described the attack as an “appalling violation” of a woman he had called a friend.
The court was told that Pariyo had persistently pressured the woman for sex on the night of the assault, ignoring her refusals before raping her.
The next morning, he accompanied her to a pharmacy to buy the morning-after pill and even suggested buying condoms, implying he intended to have sex with her again later that day.
In a harrowing victim impact statement read in court, the woman described the lasting trauma caused by 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. 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 have to fight like their life depends on it for something as simple as consent.”
Pariyo’s defense lawyer, John Ryan, argued that his client feared returning to Uganda due to accusations of homosexuality.
However, Judge Hughes emphasized that his conviction would negatively impact his asylum claim, stating that his actions had betrayed the trust of a woman who had considered him a friend.
“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. She will never be the same strong, confident woman she was before she came to Cardiff to see you, because of your sexual greed,” the judge said.
Pariyo’s conviction and sentencing cast uncertainty over his asylum status, with the court acknowledging that his criminal record would likely affect his ability to remain in the UK.
