Salem Rekoub, aged 28, an Algerian national residing illegally in the United Kingdom, has been sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment at Isleworth Crown Court after being convicted of a predatory sexual assault against a semi-conscious woman in Chelsea.
The court heard that Rekoub initially arrived in Great Britain on a standard tourist visa in 2023.
After his visa expired, he remained in the country unlawfully and secured work as an independent food delivery courier for Deliveroo, operating without the legal right to reside or take employment in the UK.
Prosecuting barrister Patricia May informed the court that incomplete onboarding and compliance checks had enabled Rekoub to work undetected.
The attack took place in July 2024 after the victim, a woman in her 40s, was returning home from a social evening with friends.
Feeling unwell, she disembarked from a bus and collapsed semi-conscious onto the pavement.
Rekoub, dressed in delivery courier clothing, spotted the vulnerable woman, propped his bicycle against an adjacent wall, and dragged her down an adjoining side street “like a rag doll”.
Moving the woman between parked motor vehicles to conceal the crime from street view, Rekoub carried out a violent, sustained sexual assault lasting approximately 17 minutes as the victim drifted in and out of consciousness.
Medical examiners documented 33 distinct bruises and contusions across the victim’s body.
In a victim impact statement read during sentencing, the woman revealed she now suffers from debilitating seizures, has required admission to a mental health facility, and remains in a perpetual state of fear.
Following the assault, Rekoub placed a call to emergency services via 999 using a fictitious name, falsely presenting himself as an innocent bystander and telling dispatch operators that the woman had simply become intoxicated.
When paramedics arrived and transported the victim to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Rekoub shadowed the ambulance.
Hospital security cameras recorded Rekoub walking through corridors, smirking, and looking into emergency triage rooms in what prosecutors described as an attempt to access the woman again.
When challenged by clinical staff, Rekoub stated: “I’m here to find someone.”
The victim alerted hospital staff to the assault, triggering an urgent investigation by the Metropolitan Police that resulted in Rekoub’s arrest nine days later.
Following a contested trial at Isleworth Crown Court, a jury convicted Rekoub of five offences:
- Three counts of rape
- Two counts of assault by penetration
Sentencing him, the presiding judge declared Rekoub an acute danger to the public and imposed an immediate custodial sentence of 21 years (252 months).
The case will be referred to the Home Office for automatic deportation proceedings upon completion of his custodial term.
Release Calculation: Under UK sentencing legislation governing standard determinate sentences of seven years or more for serious sexual offences, statutory release at the halfway mark does not apply. Rekoub is subject to the mandatory two-thirds custody provision, requiring him to serve a minimum of two-thirds (14 years / 168 months) of his 21-year sentence in prison custody before becoming eligible to be considered for release on licence by the Probation Service ahead of deportation.
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