Grime star Solo 45 who held four women hostage is jailed for 24 years
Grime star Solo 45 who is aroused by crying and held four women hostage as he repeatedly raped them in sadistic sex attacks he filmed is jailed for 24 years
- Andy Anokye, who performs as Solo 45, was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court
- The 33-year-old rapper was convicted of 30 charges including 21 counts of rape
- During the trial, the jury were shown graphic videos of the brutal attacks
A grime artist who held four women against their will and repeatedly raped them has been jailed for 24 years.
Andy Anokye, 33, who performed under the stage name Solo 45, was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of 30 charges relating to a two-year period.
These were 21 rapes, five counts of false imprisonment, two counts of assault by penetration and two of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The musician, who was part of the grime collective Boy Better Know, derived sexual pleasure from torturing the women by water-boarding, interrogating, assaulting and raping them.
He claimed the acts were part of consensual role play, or a game he played called ‘Catch me, Rape me’, and said he told women he would ‘terrorise’ them.
Andy Anokye, 33, who performed under the stage name Solo 45, was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of 30 charges relating to a two-year period and jailed for 24 years today
Andy Anokye, who was part of the grime collective Boy Better Know, claimed the acts were part of consensual role play, or a game he played called ‘Catch me, Rape me’ to ‘terrorise’ them
GRIME STAR’S SECRET LIFE OF ABUSING WOMEN REVEALED IN FOOTAGE HE FILMED
Less than a year before Solo 45 was arrested at his waterfront flat in Bristol, he was signing an album deal with Island Records as his single Feed Em To The Lions played.
Footage shows the musician, real name Andy Anokye, holding a glass of champagne in one hand and a pen in the other as he signs the deal in June 2016.
The 20-second clip was played as Anokye, now 33, stood in the witness box at Bristol Crown Court to give his defence to charges including rape and false imprisonment.
He became emotional as he charted his journey from Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm estate to performances in front of large crowds chanting his lyrics.
Anokye became involved in music at the age of 14 but was also a keen computer programmer.
At the age of 16, Anokye left secondary school after being stabbed and spent his time working on a pirate radio station as well as being involved in criminal activity.
He had already given himself the stage name Solo 45 and within two years, he had become part of the Boy Better Know collective.
Anokye said he had filmed himself taking part in ‘vigorous and rough’ sex with tens of women over the years.
Later, he discovered the phrase dacryphilia – arousal from tears – and it explained why he preferred ‘raw emotion’ when it came to sex.
‘I don’t think women I get myself involved with would look at me and think ‘he’s going to make slow, sensual, candlelit love to me’,’ Anokye told the jury.
‘They were all aware of what kind of sex I was into. I would explain to them that it would involve terrorising them.
‘We would do a lot of things that pushed the boundaries. I would humiliate them, degrade them, call them names.
‘I’ve got my own quirks and my own kinks.’
Those quirks and kinks included raping women, imprisoning them in his home and assaulting them, the jury found.
Jurors were shown videos filmed by Anokye, showing women frightened, crying and in pain as the musician laughed, sexually abused and insulted them.
Police began investigating Anokye, who is from London but had a harbourside apartment in Bristol, in 2017 after a woman complained she had been raped by him.
After his arrest, officers discovered harrowing footage filmed by Anokye on his mobile phone that revealed he had abused multiple women.
Judge William Hart imposed an extended sentence, meaning Anokye will serve 24 years in prison and five on licence, and ordered he must sign the sex offenders register for life.
The judge told Anokye, who appeared by video link from HMP Long Lartin, he had ‘no sexual boundaries or empathy for those concerned’.
He said Anokye had ‘become addicted’ to the ‘perverted pleasure’ he took from abusing the women in the case.
The judge added: ‘You have a background that includes gang associations and criminal violence.
‘I’m entirely satisfied that your career as a music artist was flourishing at the time of this offending and that you would have gone to great heights.
‘You were part of a well-known collective – Boy Better Know. The fellow artists from that collective have achieved great success.’
The judge said none of those fellow artists were aware of Anokye’s behaviour, or ‘dark side’.
‘They are in no way tarnished by your misdeeds which you carried out in a private way,’ the judge told Anokye.
‘Your convictions have deprived you of that career but the fault is yours alone.’
During the trial, the graphic video clips filmed by Anokye were played to the jury.
They showed Anokye interrogating the women about previous sexual partners, slapping them, insulting them and raping them.
One clip showed a woman crying and saying ‘I hate you’, with the musician laughing and making a thumbs-up sign to the camera.
The videos were so intimate and extreme that Judge William Hart cleared the public gallery of the court room when they were shown.
At the end of the trial, the judge excused the panel from jury service in the future and paid tribute to how they had dealt with the ‘quite disturbing’ evidence.
Anokye, who was signed to Island Records and had collaborated with Stormzy, JME and Wiley, was described as a ‘violent, controlling narcissist and a bully’ by prosecutors during the case.
The trial heard he forced one woman to lie in a bath of freezing cold water, held a shotgun to the head of another woman. and made one sit with a bottle of water tied to her finger with a shoelace.
His abuse included holding a cloth covered in bleach to women’s faces, with one woman telling jurors he had forced a mobile phone down her throat.
Giving evidence, Anokye told the court he had dacryphilia – sexual arousal from tears.
Avon and Somerset Police released his image of a shotgun which was shown in evidence in the case against Anoyke, who was jailed today for 24 years after being convicted of 30 charges
Prosecutors described Anokye as ‘dangerous’ to the public and said he posed a risk of physical and sexual violence as Judge William Hart jailed him for 24 years with an extended licence
Christopher Quinlan QC, prosecuting, said Anokye is ‘dangerous’ to the public and poses a risk of physical and sexual violence.
‘He is a calculating, highly manipulative man,’ Mr Quinlan said. ‘He has no concept at all of what right-minded people consider to be proper behavioural values.’
Following Anokye’s arrest, police examined videos and images on three mobile phones, an external hard drive and a laptop found at his apartment in Bristol.
They contacted further women and three came forward with complaints of abuse at his hands.
A fifth woman also gave evidence against Anokye during the trial, but jurors heard he could not be charged with alleged offences against her as they took place abroad.
Sally O’Neill QC, representing Anokye, said he is willing to undergo treatment programmes for his behaviour.
She told the court he has an ‘ongoing anxiety disorder’ and is a ‘different person’ since his arrest in 2017.
Judge William Hart told Anokye that he had ‘no sexual boundaries and no empathy for the women concerned’.
‘You have an admitted background involving gang association and violence but you have no previous convictions for sexual offending,’ the judge said.
‘I am entirely satisfied that your career as an artist was flourishing at the time of this offending and would have gone to greater heights.
‘The popular acclaim that greeted performances of your best-known track Feed Em To The Lions was evident in the various videos that the jury saw of your performances.
‘You were part of a well-known collective, Boy Better Know. The fellow artists from that collective have achieved great success.
‘But none of those artists, dedicated to their craft, knew of your dark side and they are in no way tainted by your misdeeds which were carried out in a wholly private and hidden way.’
Anokye was convicted of 30 charges on March 11 this year.
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