2004: FOOTBALL REFEREE JAILED FOR RAPE OF YOUNG MOTHER
At Worcester Crown Court, a football referee was sentenced to five years for raping a 21-year-old woman he met at a social club’s karaoke evening.Paul Januszewski had accompanied the woman home and assaulted her in her bedroom.
Her neighbours in Redditch heard her screams and she managed to contact the police via her mobile phone.
The 46-year-old resident of Plimsoll Street, Kidderminster, was convicted of rape by a majority verdict of 10-2 after a jury of seven men and five women deliberated for more than eight hours.
He was cleared of charges of indecent assault and four counts of intimidation of witnesses.
Judge John Cavell commented that the evidence demonstrated he initially made friendly gestures but then exploited her when she was partly intoxicated.
He was ordered to remain on the sex offenders' register for life.
Januszewski, who was previously employed as a taxi driver but lost his job following these events and later worked as a labourer, had urged the victim to consume alcohol she did not want at the Redditch club on October 26 last year and convinced her to let him accompany her home.
She experienced multiple episodes of vomiting before lying in bed wrapped in a duvet, after which he assaulted her.
The prosecution’s case was supported by neighbours who found her distressed and disheveled after the incident.
The victim was not interested in pursuing a relationship with someone significantly older, especially as she had just ended a romantic relationship.
During the trial, defence counsel Richard Bond argued that Januszewski was too drunk—having consumed five pints of lager—to have engaged in sex.
Januszewski lives alone and spends his free time refereeing football matches.
His past criminal record includes threats, damage to property, and deception, but he had not been convicted of any sexual offenses for 19 years.
