Scholarship student jailed after raping intoxicated woman

AN INDIAN scholarship student has been jailed for raping a woman by taking advantage of her intoxicated state.

Preet Vikal, 20, carried the woman in his arms and on his shoulders to his flat in Cardiff and took a photograph of her in his bed before attacking her in June last year.

She was unable to sleep after the incident which left her shaken, South Wales Police said on Friday (16) after Vakil was sentenced to six years and nine months in a young offenders' institution - two-thirds of the term to be served in custody and the rest on licence.

Vikal came across the woman on the intervening night of June 3 and 4, 2022 when they were on a night out with separate groups of friends in the Welsh capital.

Outside Live Lounge, the woman, who was excessively drunk, encountered the engineering student who appeared to help her.

As the woman’s group walked along North Road, she and Vakil, who had been also drinking at the venue, moved far ahead of the others, Mail Online reported.

Vakil was later seen on CCTV carrying her on King Edward VII Avenue and North Road. He took her to a property in the North Road area where he raped her, the police said.

As she reported the incident to the force, the CCTV footage and an Instagram message exchange between the man and the woman led to his arrest.

Mitigating, barrister Louise Sweet said her client from a village north of Delhi expressed his "deepest apology" for the pain he caused to the woman.

It was not a predatory offence but a chance meeting of two young people "who were both heavily intoxicated," Sweet said.

Detective Constable Nick Woodland said stranger attacks were “extremely unusual” in Cardiff but Vakil was “a dangerous individual” who “took advantage of an intoxicated and vulnerable young woman.”