A vulnerable man was lured to a house in Cambridge where he was beaten, held captive, and robbed. The man’s “prolonged and pre-meditated” ordeal at the hands of Chemseddine Lahouel-Guettala, 35, on 6 June 2023 only ended when he approached a worried member of the public covered in blood. He told the passerby he had been kidnapped, beaten up, and forced to give away his money, but had managed to escape. Police noted the man had bruising, reddening, and swelling to the face, black eyes and blood stains on his face and clothes. He told officers he went for a game of pool at WT’s pub in Cambridge City Centre where he met two men and went back with them to a house in the city, but he was then prevented from leaving the house. He was stamped on and told to stay on the floor and was asked his bank details. The man confided in police that he was then bundled into a car and threatened to be taken to Barnwell area of Cambridge, where he genuinely believed that he was going to be killed and buried at that location. He managed to escape the car and flag down a passerby for help who called 999. The police found the man in the street. He pointed out the house he was beaten in, where a scene was put on and it was searched but no-one was home. Scenes of crime officers also visited the address where they found blood by the door, on a trainer and in the sink. The victim was taken to hospital where scans revealed he had swelling to his scalp and skull, a fractured and displaced right eye socket and had reduced movement in his right eye because of the attack. Enquiries with the man’s bank revealed £200 had been withdrawn in cash from his account at Tesco, in Cherry Hinton, by a woman and a man in black, who have never been identified. A fraudulent bank transfer was blocked but had planned to be sent to an account in the name of Lahouel-Guettala. Further enquiries also linked back to the same man and Lahouel-Guettala was arrested at Luton Airport on 20 June where he was planning to board a flight. In police interview he denied assaulting the man; however, a phone seized from him at the airport contained messages revealing he had tried to transfer £6,000 of the man’s money into his own account. He continued to deny the allegations and stood trial at Peterborough Crown Court in November, where jurors took less than five hours to find him guilty by majority verdict of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, false imprisonment, and robbery. Lahouel-Guettala, of Colville Road, Cambridge, was handed four and a half years in jail at the same court on Tuesday (17 February).
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