Watch: Arrest warrant issued after convicted rapist a no-show
WARNING: This post contains language some readers may find offensive.
SASKATOON – A convicted rapist who was scheduled to be sentenced Friday has had a bench warrant issued for his arrest after failing to appear in a Saskatoon courtroom.
Police are now on the look out for Butchang Nkem, a convicted rapist who failed to show up at Court of Queen’s Bench after he was found guilty by a judge of sexually assaulting a young woman on New Year’s Day 2012.
The arrest warrant was issued by the judge, with Nkem’s lawyer unsure of why her client was a no-show. She has now withdrawn from the case.
The victim, who’s identity is protected by a publication ban, spoke to the media for the first time on Friday.
“I feel incredibly let down by the court, I feel that all my efforts that I’ve put towards this trial have been now thrown away.”
On Sept. 16, the day of the verdict, the Crown had argued for Nkem to be remanded even though his passport had been revoked. Judge Richard Danyliuk ruled against it but said Nkem’s absence in court Friday was the reason he wrestled with the decision.
The victim, who was 20 at the time of the assault, said she had a sinking feeling this would happen.
“I feel like I’m just going to not ever have closure and hell for the rest of my life – he’s gone.”
During the trial, the woman testified that she was drugged and repeatedly raped both vaginally and anally at a university residence building following a New Year’s Eve celebration.
“I was hurting and I wanted it to stop,” said the woman on the stand.
Riddled with pain, the woman sought out medical treatment that day and later that year. When her rape kit was processed the victim would learn there was DNA from a second man identified as Butchang Nkem.
Nkem testified the woman made sexual advances towards him in a bedroom, performed oral sex willing and consented to sex with him after he had initially entered the room to get a camera.
The judge, when delivering his verdict dismissed Nkem’s version saying it sounded like an “adolescent fantasy.”
Farouk Sadiq, a co-accused in the case, was found not guilty after the judge felt Sadiq had the honest but mistaken belief that the woman had consented to sex with him.
Sentencing for Nkem has been postponed until further notice.
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