Ammanford Man Jailed for Raping Woman in Her Home

A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison after raping an intoxicated woman in her own home. ⚖️

Robert Smith of Penygarn Road, Ammanford, entered the victim’s house while she slept and sexually assaulted her in July last year. The court heard Smith had taken the heavily intoxicated woman home from a gathering, placed her on her bed, and later returned to rape her.

Swansea Crown Court was told Smith left the victim “half hanging off the bed with her clothes strewn over the floor.”

In a powerful statement read to the court, the victim said: “It is almost impossible to put into words how this incident has affected me. It has turned my life upside down. I have felt vulnerable and lost. I have felt dirty and disgusting in the aftermath of the assault against me. This person forced himself on me and degraded me at a time when I was at my most vulnerable.”

The woman was forced to leave her home following the attack, telling the court: “I loved living in that house. It was a quiet peaceful estate and my daughter and I had built our lives in that house. That was all taken away from me that night last July.”

Judge Paul Thomas noted Smith’s early guilty plea but also highlighted “worryingly similar hallmarks” to a previous sexual assault Smith committed when he was 13. The judge described a “Jekyll and Hyde aspect” to Smith’s personality.

Smith received a five-year and four-month prison sentence and a restraining order preventing contact with his victim for at least ten years.

Detective Sergeant Carl Pock of Dyfed-Powys Police commended the victim’s bravery, saying: “I want to commend the victim’s bravery in coming forward and reporting what can only be described as a hideous, predatory, and selfish crime. A person’s home should always be considered a place of safety and sanctuary, but Robert Smith’s actions in July last year destroyed the victim’s ability to live peacefully in her home.”

The victim has asked the public not to target Smith’s family with abuse online, stating: “I am not the only victim in this case,” and adding, “they are not responsible for his actions.”