Posted by AFP on
Former Nigerian international defender Godwin Okpara is to face 10 years imprisonment after a French court convicted the former PSG star of the rape, torture and enslavement of his adopted daughter.
Former Nigerian international defender Godwin Okpara is to face 10 years imprisonment after a French court convicted the former PSG star of the rape, torture and enslavement of his adopted daughter.
His wife, Linda Okpara, was also given a 15 year jail sentence for similar offences.
The 35-year-old former Strasbourg player and his wife, 42, had denied all the charges brought against them, and are expected to appeal the sentences.
Okpara had during trial admitted to having sex with the adopted girl once in 2005, who at the time was only 13 years of age. By way of defence, he said that the girl gave her consent to the act.
The adopted daughter has arrived in France from Nigeria in 2005, when she was about 8 years of age.
According to reports from BBC Sport, the adopted daughter later testified in court that it was when Linda Okpara discovered that she was having an affair with Godwin that she started maltreating her, and subjecting her to 'cruel sexual acts".
She further testified to the court that she was restricted from going to school, and rather was constantly subjected to menial housework.
Prosecutors in the case said the Nigerian couple conspired with an Aunt of Linda Okpara to keep the little girl in the inhumane conditions.
The aunt was sentenced to an 18 months jail sentence for failing to prevent the crime from being carried out.