Get you up to speed: Deliveroo driver jailed for 21 years for raping woman he dragged off street | News UK
Salem Rekoub, a 28-year-old Deliveroo worker, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison after raping a woman in her 40s at a bus stop in July 2024. The incident occurred in London, and Rekoub was found guilty of three counts of rape and two counts of assaulting a female by penetration.
Salem Rekoub, who is in the UK on a tourist visa, was sentenced on 24 October 2024 at Isleworth Crown Court. Prosecutors indicated that there were “incomplete checks” regarding his eligibility to work in the UK as he was employed by Deliveroo at the time of the offence.
Salem Rekoub has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for raping a woman, with the judge describing him as a public danger. Following the incident, prosecutors highlighted incomplete checks regarding Rekoub’s eligibility to work in the UK due to his tourist visa status.
What remains unclear — It is unclear whether there will be further investigations into the checks regarding Salem Rekoub’s eligibility to work in the UK on a tourist visa.
Deliveroo driver sentenced to 21 years for raping semi-conscious woman
A Deliveroo worker has been jailed for 21 years after raping a woman he found semi-conscious at a bus stop.
Salem Rekoub, 28, dragged the woman, who is in her 40s, down a side street by her arms and repeatedly raped her in an attack lasting 17 minutes.
The jury at Isleworth Crown Court heard that his ‘trapped’ victim drifted in and out of consciousness while he told her: ‘You need to be quiet’.
She was left with 33 bruises across her body and has been suffering from seizures since the nightmare incident in July 2024.
Rekoub was found guilty of three counts of rape and two counts of assaulting a female by penetration.
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He had called 999 after the rape, reportedly telling operators ‘a pack of lies’, claiming she had had ‘too much to drink’ and he was simply a concerned passerby.
After giving police a fake name, he followed the ambulance to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where he continued to look for his victim.
CCTV seen by the jurors showed him walking the corridors, checking the emergency unit ‘to get to the woman again’.
When confronted by hospital staff, he said he was ‘here to find someone’.
His victim managed to whisper to the paramedics what had happened, and Rekoub was arrested by the WTXpolitan Police nine days later.
In an impact statement, the victim shared: ‘This has destroyed my life and I am not the same person.
‘It has killed me and made me feel worthless. I tried to take my own life because I felt like I could not cope.
‘I have been left in a constant state of fear. I couldn’t escape because he told me to be quiet and had his hands around my throat.
‘I have been left completely numb and disassociated. I have begun to have seizures and my speech has become slurred.’
According to prosecutor Patricia May, the victim had been out with friends but had got off the bus on her way home as she felt unwell.
‘She passed out on the pavement and it is there when the defendant, a complete stranger, found her,’ May said.
Calling the incident ‘very upsetting’, May continued: ‘He leant his Deliveroo bike against a wall and dragged her down a side road which was away from the public.
‘While she was there, he pulled her between two cars, and as she was shifting in and out of consciousness, he committed all the offences against her.’
The prosecutor added that there were ‘incomplete checks’ to whether he should have been working at all, as he was in Britain on a tourist visa.
His barrister, Brinder Soora, told the court that he had escaped violence in Algeria and was ‘eager to find a relationship again’.
The defence reportedly left her ‘shaking in fear’ during the trial, at one point forcing her to leave the courtroom.
Of his claims in court, she said: ‘It has made me question myself and added to my trauma.’
The judge sentenced him to 21 years in jail and branded him a public danger.