HUMILIATED RUGBY STAR JOE NAIDOLE GUILTY OF HORRIFYING RAPE
Former Huddersfield Rugby League player Joe Naidole – who has already served time for killing a man – is now in a prison cell awaiting sentence.A jury yesterday found him guilty of raping a teenage student at his home in the town last year.
Naidole, 39, of Winget Avenue, Cowlersley, claimed the 17-year-old victim had consented to sex with him, but a jury at Bradford Crown Court unanimously found him guilty of rape.
The student, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been for a night out in Huddersfield and went back to Naidole’s home with him and his girlfriend.
The teenager, who was sleeping on a sofa in the living room, told the court how Naidole had come downstairs and raped her the next morning while his girlfriend was upstairs in bed.
Naidole’s rugby career, which included spells at Huddersfield and Featherstone in the 1990s as well as playing for Fiji at international level, could not be referred to during the three-day trial because of a banning order made by the judge.
It also emerged after the verdict was returned that in 1990 he served a 12-month prison sentence for manslaughter.
That offence was committed while he was working as a bouncer.
Naidole had been on bail during his trial, but Judge Roger Scott remanded him in custody following the guilty verdict and told him that he would receive a prison sentence when his case is listed again on a date yet to be fixed.
Naidole was only 22 when he was convicted of the manslaughter of a man at the former Changing Lights club in Folly Hall.
He was working as a doorman at the club when he struck a man who subsequently died.
Naidole was jailed for 12 months but was released on licence early to resume his playing career with the Fartown club.
