An African immigrant who sexually assaulted two women at his Canadian university will spend no more than two years in jail after a judge gave him a reduced sentence because he is black.
Nigerian-born former St. Francis Xavier University football player Omogbolahan (Teddy) Jegede, 25, was sentenced in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Antigonish this week after being found guilty by a jury earlier this year.
He attacked both women at residences at the university in 2022 and 2023, and also choked one woman to near unconsciousness and forced the other to perform oral sex. Both victims testified that they were physically dominated by the much larger male athlete, and suffer ongoing trauma.
But Justice Frank Hoskins took into account an Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA) that found Jegede was feeling intense pressure at the time of the rapes and did not have “culturally appropriate support”, The National Post reported.
“It should be noted that, but for the contents of the IRCA, the pre-sentence report and all the mitigating factors surrounding Mr Jegede, this sentence would have been much higher,” Justice Hoskins said.
The judge noted Jegede and his family migrated to Canada in 2010 and lived first in Brampton, Ontario, before moving to Fort McMurray, Alberta, and that his mother claimed he “experienced bullying in elementary school due to his accent and racial identity as a black child”.
Jedege told the IRCA author he struggled as a black man in a mainly White university town, and the report outlined declines in the rapist’s grades and mental health during his second and third years.
“I grew up around black people in Brampton and Fort McMurray. Many of them were immigrants, which allowed us to relate to each other on many levels, especially culture. It was like that until I moved to Antigonish to attend university,” Jedege told the author.
“The absence of adult mentors or role models further exacerbated Mr Jegede’s vulnerability. His parents had hoped his football coach would provide guidance, but this need went unmet,” the report stated.
Justice Hoskins told the court the IRCA “provided valuable insight” and “an understanding of Mr Jegede’s background from a social, cultural perspective,” but also said only a jail sentence would be appropriate.
“Two very serious sexual assault and offences against two different victims at the same school, in similar circumstances, approximately five months apart, which is concerning, because it suggests that Mr. Jegede may be dangerous,” he told the court.
“In other words, this is not an isolated incident involving one victim, the nature of both offences and their immediate lasting consequences make them very serious offences.”
He sentenced Jegede to 18 months for the more violent and invasive sexual assault, and six months for the other, with three years of probation rather than jail time due to Jegede’s prospects for rehabilitation, and said he was a “really good candidate for early parole”.
Justice Hoskins also recommended that Jegede be sent to prison in Alberta so he can be close to his family, CBC reported.
IRCAs were brought in by the Trudeau government in 2021 to “help criminal justice professionals better understand the effects of poverty, marginalisation, racism, and social exclusion on black and racialised offenders and their life experiences”.
Header image: Left, right, Omogbolahan (Teddy) Jegede (CBC).
