ACT Appeal Court dismisses Chidi Okwechime's challenge of rape sentence, convictions

Chidi Chike Okwechime was sentenced in 2022 to more than five years in jail for raping and choking an influencer. He received a three-year non-parole period.

Acting Justice Stephen Norrish imposed the sentence in the ACT Supreme Court after a jury found Okwechime guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and a choking charge.

The jury acquitted Okwechime, 35, of two other rape charges.

Okwechime challenged his convictions and sentence in the ACT Court of Appeal in March 2023.

However, on Friday, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum, Justice David Mossop and Justice Natalie Charlesworth dismissed the appeal.

In May 2021, the victim went clubbing at Kokomo's and Fiction in Civic. She began talking to Okwechime and some of his friends in the hope of getting some cocaine, which she received from an outlaw motorcycle gang member among the group.

She eventually left Civic with another woman, Okwechime and his bikie friend, under the impression they were bound for a party at the latter's unit in Coombs.

But there turned out to be no party at the unit, where the bikie and the second woman quickly disappeared into a bedroom.

Left alone with the victim, Okwechime raped and choked her. The victim fled and sought help from a nearby resident.

In the appeal, counsel for Okwechime, barrister Bret Walker SC argued aspects of the evidence had not been challenged during the trial, and should have left the jury with doubt about his client's guilt.

The bikie and his then-girlfriend had claimed the walls of the unit were "paper thin", and they had heard nothing to suggest Okwechime was raping the victim.

During the trial, the bikie said Okwechime was "panicking" after the victim left the apartment and had told him: "This girl has literally just said that I raped her."

Mr Walker argued jurors had returned "unreasonable" verdicts which were unable to be supported by evidence.

However, the appeal court found the jury had accepted beyond reasonable doubt there had been no consent, and therefore must have accepted the victim's evidence.

"[Okwechime's] version of events failed to explain the variety of injuries which were observed on the [victim]," a judgement published on Friday said.

"These included bruising to the neck consistent with strangulation, bruising on the [victim's] arms and abdomen, right knee, thigh and lower leg."

Another ground of Okwechime's appeal, that a miscarriage of justice had occurred during the trial, was also dismissed.

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The other aspect of the appeal involved the contention that acting Justice Norrish made two errors in relation to his sentence.

Mr Walker claimed the sentencing judge was wrong to find the choking of the victim lasted 15 seconds.

He also alleged the penalty for one of the rape charges was "unjustly disproportionate".

The appeal court dismissed these claims.

"The figure of 15 seconds was inevitably an approximation, there was no error of fact in settling upon that figure," the judgement stated.

The judges also found the sentence was not disproportionate or "manifestly excessive", and "has not demonstrated any error of principle".

Okwechime will remain behind bars until at least June 2025.

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