Former corrections officer found guilty of raping women in prison

INDIANAPOLIS — A former corrections officer at the Indiana Prison for Women has been found guilty of abusing his authority to sexually assault and rape inmates while working at the prison.

Gbenga Afolabi was arrested by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police and subsequently charged with 19 felonies by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office in November 2021.

On October 31, 2024, the jury found Afolabi guilty of five counts of sexual harassment, two counts of intimidation, three counts of official misconduct and three counts of rape following a two-day jury trial.

Afolabi is expected to be sentenced for his crimes on November 11, 2024.

What led to Afolabi’s arrest?

According to court documents, in July 2021, investigators at the Indiana Department of Corrections learned that a woman at the prison had filed a report that a corrections officer had forced her to have sex with him in a staff restroom on two separate occasions.

After learning of this report, investigators discovered that Afolabi forced four women to have sex with him on multiple occasions over the course of four months.

Investigators began by reviewing security camera footage from the prison; Afolabi entered a staff restroom with two different women for several minutes on multiple occasions, allowed them to leave when the hallway was clear, entered a third woman’s cell multiple times, and the fourth woman was taken to the cleaning room, according to court documents.

After investigators obtained footage of possible abuse by Afolabi, they began interviewing the women seen in the footage.

Investigators first interviewed the woman who filed the report against Afolabi, and according to court documents, she explained to investigators that their sexual relationship was not consensual and that she was initially afraid to report him after he threatened to retaliate against her.

“No one would believe an inmate over an officer,” he told investigators, according to court documents.

Her mother urged her to report after learning about the rape and the possibility that she was pregnant, according to court documents.

Following the notice, the woman was referred to the hospital for sexual assault examination, and Afolabi’s DNA was also found in the examination findings.

Investigators later interviewed other women seen in security footage who were initially reluctant to speak out for fear Afolabi or the department would retaliate against them.

Only after some reassurance did the women tell investigators what happened.

After being raped in her cell, a woman told investigators that Afolabi placed some of her sperm in a plastic bag, according to court documents.

Investigators collected evidence and sent it to the state police laboratory for DNA testing. Later tests revealed that it belonged to Afolabi.

Investigators confront Afolabi

On July 19, 2021, investigators confronted Afolabi and asked if he had taken any of the women to the staff toilet.

Afolabi initially denied the allegation, but changed his statement after investigators provided him with the security footage, according to court documents.

According to court documents, Afolabi explained that he took the women to the restroom to “get information” about what was happening in the unit.

Afolabi later told investigators that he had not had sexual relations with women and that they could collect his DNA to prove his innocence, according to court documents.

DNA samples collected from his saliva, a sexual assault kit and semen from one of the women showed “very strong support” that the DNA belonged to Afolabi, according to court records.

Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at [email protected] or follow him at X @1NoePadilla.

What led to Afolabi’s arrest?

Investigators confront Afolabi

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