Beaten and held captive in a chilling attack
A vulnerable man was lured to a Cambridge house where he was brutally beaten, held captive, and robbed. The savage assault happened on 6 June 2023 and ended only when the bloodied victim flagged down a passerby. He told them he’d been kidnapped, bashed up, and forced to hand over his cash before managing a desperate escape.
Police described the man’s injuries: black eyes, a swollen, bruised face, and bloodstains covering his clothes. He told officers he met two men while playing pool at WT’s pub in Cambridge City Centre. The trio then went to a nearby house, but the victim soon found he was trapped. He was stomped on and ordered to stay down, his bank details demanded.
Terrifying kidnapping and narrow escape
The victim revealed he was pushed into a car and threatened with death, taken to Barnwell in Cambridge, where he feared being killed and buried. Miraculously, he escaped the vehicle and flagged down a passerby who dialled 999. Officers quickly found him and tracked down the house where the attack occurred – though it was empty by then. Scenes of crime officers found blood by the front door, on a trainer, and in the sink.
Hospital scans exposed the extent of his injuries: swelling to the scalp and skull, a fractured and displaced right eye socket, and limited eye movement caused by the savage beating.
£200 stolen and £6,000 bank scam exposed
Bank checks uncovered £200 withdrawn from Tesco in Cherry Hinton by a mystery man and woman. A planned fraudulent transfer to an account linked to Chemseddine Lahouel-Guettala was blocked just in time. Police arrested Lahouel-Guettala, 35, at Luton Airport on 20 June as he attempted to flee the country.
Despite denying all charges, messages on his phone showed he tried to funnel £6,000 of the victim’s money into his own account.
Swift justice: Four-and-a-half years behind bars
Lahouel-Guettala, from Colville Road, Cambridge, faced a November trial at Peterborough Crown Court. After less than five hours of deliberation, jurors found him guilty by majority verdict of assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent, false imprisonment, and robbery.
On 17 February, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, finally paying for a terrifying and premeditated crime that left the victim battered and traumatised.
