Teen ‘held hostage, beaten and raped’ after visit to see spare room, court told

The 18-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly put through the violent ordeal for up to 15 hours at a flat in north London, Wood Green Crown Court heard.
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Rebecca Speare-Cole25 August 2020
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A teenager was held hostage, beaten and repeatedly raped after visiting a house to look at a spare room, a court has heard.

The 18-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly put through the violent ordeal for up to 15 hours at a flat in north London, Wood Green Crown Court heard.

Her friend had left her alone with Chakib Bellaoui, 26, after the three went clubbing in February.

She suffered a fractured eye socket and swelling and bruising before escaping the room “covered in blood” after her alleged attacker went to the bathroom, the court was told.

Bellaoui, of Tottenham, is on trial accused of false imprisonment, four counts of rape and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecutor Abigail Husbands told jurors the complainant and her male friend had met Bellaoui earlier that day and swapped numbers before a night out.

They then went to Bellaoui’s flat and took cocaine as he said he had a spare room to rent after hearing the teenager needed a place to live, jurors heard.

But the prosecutor said the complainant’s friend then left having apparently lost his phone, and she subsequently found herself having sex with the defendant.

Ms Husbands said: “She couldn’t remember whether it was with her consent but it may have been.

“But what was happening in the bedroom changed.

“She distinctly remembers the defendant wanting anal sex. She said that was not happening, she said no, and he just ignored her, held her down by her wrists, she was trying to fight back but it didn’t work.

“She was saying ‘no’, she was crying and screaming.

“She eventually gave up fighting and he went about his business.”

Bellaoui allegedly raped her three more times before forbidding her to leave or get dressed before locking his door and then violently “battering her”, jurors heard.

The defendant, who followed proceedings with an Algerian Arabic interpreter, allegedly started telling the teenager he loved her, and burned himself with cigarettes and cut himself with a knife “to show her he was sorry”, the prosecutor said.

In a police interview from two days after the incident played in court, the complainant, whose face is visibly swollen with black eyes, tells officers: “I was begging him to let me leave. I was really scared. He slapped me and I finally hit him back and he started battering me.

“Then he got a knife and I got really f***ing scared.

“He cut himself so I knew he would not be scared to cut me so I sat down and played along with an idea I could go back and get my stuff and live with him for two weeks as a trial period.”

After escaping and “screaming for help covered in blood”, a member of the public called police, she said.

Jurors heard Bellaoui was then flagged as wanted and was arrested in North Wales in March, around a month after the alleged attack, trying to board a ferry to Dublin.

His semen DNA was found on vaginal swabs taken from the complainant and he was picked out of a video identification parade by her friend as being the man whose room they visited, the prosecutor said.

The trial, before Kalyani Kaul QC, continues.

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