A 47-year-old Nigerian nightclub security guard accused of r3pe had no right to work in the UK, Southwark Crown Court heard on Tuesday, May 27.
Morenikeji Adewole is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in his car near gay nightclub Heaven in central London on November 1, 2024.
The court was previously told the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a Christian who was saving herself for marriage.
The woman, the court heard, was said to have been drunk and stumbling. A person can be too intoxicated to give proper consent, the jury was told.
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court have now been told the defendant was on a five-year tourist visa that did not allow him to work in Britain.
He also could not stay for more than six months at a time, and he returned to Nigeria when those stints were up, it was alleged.
Mr Adewole, of Dartford, Kent, also gave a fake name to police when he was arrested following the alleged r3pe.
The defendant previously pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of an identification document with improper intention.
The defendant had been employed at Heaven under the name Olusola Julius Alabi.
Officers discovered his real name through fingerprint evidence after his arrest, jurors were told.
Giving evidence, the defendant said he “used a false ID to obtain work, to get a job” and that it was “to make a living… to save for my partner – I’m the one who paid for the rent”
He said he had come to the UK on vacation and later to find employment.
Asked why he gave officers a false name, he said: “I was panicking, that’s the name people call me at my work.”
He said he had met the alleged victim months before the incident when she said hello to him at the club.
On the the night of the alleged rape, she said “hello uncle how are you”, “you look handsome” and later kissed him, he claimed.
Mr Adewole added that “almost every night” at work he has “interactions” that can include people trying to kiss him.
He said he told her to stop and she later asked him for water.
“I told her I can’t go inside the club to get her water, but I have water in my car,” he added.
The defendant said he then took a work break and walked with the woman and her friend to his nearby Lexus and gave the friend water, which the complainant also drank.
He said the complainant needed the toilet and he went with her to a nearby tunnel, leaving the friend.
The teenager asked him to join her because “the phone-snatcher and the bag-snatcher” operate in the “dodgy area”, he said.
CCTV showed the defendant and the complainant in the tunnel and Mr Adewole claimed they kissed there.
Mr Adewole claimed the teenager said she “wanted s3x from him”, but that he told her this could not happen in the tunnel.
The defendant then collected his car and drove the teenager to nearby Adelphi Terrace.
It is alleged he then r3ped her in the back seat of the parked vehicle.
Mr Adewole claimed there was s3xual activity, but he did not have penetrative intercourse with the woman.
He added that the woman had earlier told him she was 25 years old, but in the ca,r she said she was 19 and he “stopped immediately”.
Asked why, the defendant said: “I can’t date someone below 25.”
The trial continues.
