Andy Anokye, 31, from the collective Boy Better Know, denies imprisoning and raping four women

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A grime artist imprisoned and repeatedly raped four women, a jury has been told.

Andy Anokye, 31, who performs under the stage name Solo 45, denies 31 charges including 22 counts of rape and five counts of false imprisonment.

Anokye also denies two charges of assault by penetration and two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Jurors at Bristol crown court were told Anokye was a member of the grime collective Boy Better Know.

Prosecuting, Christopher Quinlan QC alleged that Anokye “violently treated, bullied and sexually abused” four women over a two-year period.

“He imprisoned, physically assaulted and sexually violated and raped four women,” he told the jury. “He filmed, for posterity, a great deal of what he did.”

Quinlan said each of the four women would give evidence during Anokye’s trial, due to last for five weeks.

“They don’t know each other,” he said. “Yet we say each of them suffered in similar ways at different times at the hands of this defendant.”

The court heard one of the women came forward to police with allegations against Anokye and he was arrested.

His mobile phone and laptop were seized and examined by officers, who contacted three other women.

“What they disclosed to the police is, we say, reflected by the 31 allegations that he now faces,” Quinlan said.

“He physically assaulted, falsely imprisoned – that is to hold them against their will – and raped each of them repeatedly.

“We say he is a violent and controlling narcissist, a bully, a sadist who derives satisfaction and sexual pleasure from inflicting pain and suffering on women who we allege are his victims.”

Quinlan said Anokye was a grime artist and described the genre as “a form of dance music influenced by garage music”.

The court heard that notable artists associated with this genre included Skepta and Stormzy.

“They don’t have anything to do with this case though their names will feature,” Quinlan said.

“He was known, or became known, to each of the four women through their knowledge or taste for music of that type.

“He will assert that the sexual conduct with each of them was at all times consensual and there was never any occasion where he did anything with them or to them to which they were not consenting.”

Quinlan said the musician “incessantly” questioned the women about their sexual history. He allegedly waterboarded one woman, leaving her “petrified”, and claimed he had “tapped” her phone.

“What turns him on appears to be, at least in part, the tears and sobbing of another,” Quinlan told the court. “He induced authentic tears and put the woman in genuine fear.”

On another occasion, he allegedly drove a woman to a secluded area and ordered her to remove anything that could identify her.

Anokye is said to have told the woman he had people in that area to shoot her – causing her to have a panic attack.

Quinlan claimed Anokye stabbed a woman in her leg and used a knife to strike her head repeatedly.

“He poured bleach in her mouth, he threatened to brand her with a hot iron,” he told the jury.

Police examining Anokye’s mobile phones and computer discovered searches for the term “dacryphilia”.

“Essentially it means sexual arousal from another’s fears,” Quinlan said. “Tears and terror may have given him a sexual thrill.”

Anokye, of Bristol, denies all the charges against him and the case continues.