'The actor who raped me ruined my dream of acting'

A woman raped when she was 16 by her acting tutor, who had a role on the Netflix show Sex Education, said he made her feel dirty and ruined her dream of acting.

Oliwia Wudarowicz, who has waived her right to anonymity, began having acting lessons from Alexander Westwood in December 2020, after her mother met him while renovating his flat.

She should have been safe, but Westwood, from Albrighton in Shropshire, used the lessons to rape and sexually abuse her.

In February 2025, he was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison, after being convicted of 26 crimes against children and two pupils who attended his acting lessons.

Warning: Some people may find details in this story distressing.

At first, Wudarowicz said Westwood appeared calm during the one-on-one lessons and she felt safe.

However, on their third lesson she said he told her to change in front of him, claiming it was normal backstage practice, and asked whether she was a virgin.

In January 2021, Wudarowicz said Westwood, who was 20 at the time, ordered her to masturbate in front of him, telling her that because he was her teacher she "had to do what he said".

That same month, he raped her.

"He said he'd teach me how to masturbate and then he started putting his hands down my pants," Wudarowicz added.

"He then raped me – I wanted to scream because of the pain.

"I was frozen, with tears going down my face, and he put my hands by my side so I couldn't move or push him off. That's how I lost my virginity."

Later that month, she said he demanded that she perform oral sex on him, after she read a scene from Netflix's Bridgerton.

When she tried to stop her lessons Westwood told her she was bound by a contract requiring her to complete 365 lessons or pay up to £36,000.

If she missed a lesson, Wudarowicz said he would call her mother asking where she was. It left her feeling unable to speak out.

Wudarowicz said Westwood raped her four times in total. She told her mother and police in August 2021, but the case was initially closed due to a lack of evidence.

The investigation was reopened in April 2023 after more victims came forward.

They included a girl whose abuse began when she was six and Westwood was 10, a boy aged between nine and 10 whom he abused when he was 18, a woman and a second teenage acting student.

Wudarowicz, now a 21-year-old drama graduate living in the West Midlands, said: "I still scrub myself hard in the shower and have nightmares.

"If I have kids, my kids will be walking the same streets as him.

"He should be in prison rotting for much longer than his sentence."

Looking back, the 21-year-old said she wished at-home self-test DNA kits had been available, as she had to attend a forensic medical examination in person.

"They put a camera inside my vagina to see whether anything had been damaged. I was just crying and holding my mum's hand the whole time," she explained.

"I wish I could have done it at home. It would have been much less invasive, and they didn't find any damage or evidence because the last rape had been months earlier."

The case eventually went to Wolverhampton Crown Court in November 2024.

She said she was determined not to show "any signs of weakness" while giving evidence and being cross-examined.

"I felt disgusted being in the same room as him again," she added.

During sentencing, Judge Neil Chawla said Westwood used his "minor celebrity status to prey" on young girls and that the lessons were a "pretext for sexual abuse".

Since then, Wudarowicz said discussions of rape and sexual abuse during her drama degree have been triggering, and she has experienced periods of disordered eating and difficulty with romantic relationships.

However, she now feels "more confident" after sharing her story and body positivity on Instagram.

"I want to inspire other people to love themselves, and you have to learn to move forward," she said.

Looking ahead, Wudarowicz has decided she no longer wants to pursue a career in acting.

She said: "I don't want anything to do with it. He's ruined it for me forever."

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