My boyfriend raped me and I didn’t find out until I saw the footage

A man sexually assaulted and raped his partner while she slept, a court heard. Daniel Blight even stopped during the attack to take a sick selfie photo.

The victim did not realise the full extent of what had happened until she reviewed CCTV footage of her home. Blight was sentenced to seven years in prison and the victim, Sarah Jones, has waived her legal anonymity to speak about what happened in her own home, a place she feels she should have felt safe.

Swansea Crown Court heard that the attack took place in August 2022 at Miss Jones’ home in Aberdare when she and Blight were spending the evening together. After Miss Jones fell asleep on the sofa in the living room, the defendant took the opportunity to sexually assault and rape her, taking an intimate selfie of himself. The court heard that when Miss Jones woke up, she was unaware of what had happened and the couple went to bed. Later that night, she saw the selfie on her boyfriend’s phone and realised something was wrong.

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The day after Blight left for work, Miss Jones checked the Hive CCTV footage in her living room – although the camera was pointed at the inside of the front door, it also captured the sofa. That’s when the 39-year-old coffee shop worker saw her boyfriend attack and rape her in her sleep. After the verdict was read, she said: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This was someone I trusted. I was sleeping in my own home. I should have been safe. It was such a massive breach of trust. He was my partner and he claimed to love me.”

Miss Jones said she called Blight to confront him about the incident and he initially claimed she was awake during the incident, then that he thought she was awake and finally admitted he knew she was asleep. Miss Jones ended the relationship but said the couple stayed in touch in the following months while she encouraged Blight to go to therapy as he “obviously had issues with sex”. She said the couple briefly resumed their relationship in late 2022 but after another incident of an intimate nature the victim ended the relationship for good and reported the earlier assault to the police.

Daniel Blight, aged 37, of Buckingham Road, Bonymaen, Swansea, pleaded not guilty, claiming at Swansea Crown Court that he believed he had tacitly consented to sexual intercourse with his partner. The jury found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault by penetration and one count of rape. The defendant has previously been convicted of 13 offences of possession of indecent images in 2012, for which he received a community sentence.

In mitigation, barrister David Leathley said the defendant was “in a state of slavish devotion” to Miss Jones, who was “the deity he worshipped”. He said in his client’s eyes what he did on the night in question was “an act of worship” of his partner. The barrister described the case as “truly bizarre” and said his client was a “crass idiot” to behave in this way.

Judge Huw Rees said a pre-sentence report on the defendant examined his “preoccupation” with sex, which had been a “predominant factor” in his life. Blight was sentenced to seven years in prison, including seven years for rape and four years for each of the sexual assaults, all to run concurrently. He will serve two-thirds of that sentence in custody before being released on parole to serve the remainder of the sentence in the community. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life and a 10-year restraining order has been imposed on him prohibiting him from having any direct or indirect contact with his former partner.

Miss Jones said being raped by someone she trusted had had a massive impact on her life. “If I’m honest, I’m still trying to fully process what happened. It’s affected my trust in everyone and I feel so scared and vulnerable. I used to be very sociable and enjoyed going out with friends, now I avoid being around people. I’m worried about what the future might hold. How can I have trust in a future relationship? Invite someone back to my home?

“Waiting for the trial has only increased my anxiety. I think he (Blight) thought I would be too embarrassed to go through the trial, too embarrassed to show the surveillance footage to a room full of strangers. What he did to me cannot be undone, but if I can stop him from doing it to someone else, I must. What happened will haunt me for a long time – perhaps for the rest of my life. Hopefully I can start with the conviction to move on.”

After the verdict, South Wales Police Detective Constable Elizabeth Picton said: “Daniel Blight exploited his victim when she was completely helpless but was caught on video, which was crucial to his conviction. At South Wales Police, we tirelessly pursue perpetrators of sexual offences and ensure victims receive justice. It takes great courage for a victim to report a sexual offence and this behaviour will never be tolerated.”

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