A MAN accused of targeting five lone women in a string of early-morning attacks has claimed he was too drunk to remember what happened.
Abdelkarim Arfaoui denies ten offences against five women, which he is accused of committing between 6am and 7.20am on one Sunday morning.
The 27-year-old is on trial for one count of attempted rape, one count of grave and criminal assault, five counts of sexual touching without consent, two counts of assault and one count of threatening and abusive behaviour.
During the first five days of Mr Arfaoui’s trial in the Royal Court, jurors heard from around 30 prosecution witnesses, who helped Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam reconstitute the path the accused took that morning.
Investigators tracked Mr Arfaoui’s movements using CCTV and phone data, which allowed them to place the alleged attacks on a map.
Yesterday, jurors heard transcripts of Mr Arfaoui’s police interviews. He claimed that he was drunk and “blacked out” during the time of the alleged attacks.
He recalled going on a night out before and could remember his arrest, but said he struggled to remember the hours in between.
“A big part, I could not remember,” he told officers.
Asked about the attempted rape of the first woman, Mr Arfaoui said: “I don’t remember this.” He added that only “animals” act like that.
Mr Arfaoui then told officers he would like to apologise.
Police officers told him all the alleged victims were “lone females”.
Officers put to him during interview: “You were targeting, you were following women. I think it’s calculated, what you do.
“I don’t think what you do is the actions of someone blackout drunk, intoxicated. It’s thought-through. There is a science to it in your head.”
Setting out the case earlier this week, Crown Advocate Hallam said that Mr Arfaoui pursued a woman he had been walking with after a night out and “begged” her for sex.
He is accused of forcibly kissing her, strangling her, touching her breasts, tackling her to the ground and attempting to rape her after she refused his advances.
Prosecutors allege that after the first attack, Mr Arfaoui went on to approach four other women as they walked to work or the gym, threatening and assaulting some of them, and kissing and groping them without their consent.
Mr Arfaoui’s lawyer, Advocate Greg Herold-Howes, said that his client had been drunk and had simply been trying to get directions from the women.
He claimed that rather than having forced himself on them, Mr Arfaoui drunkenly fell onto them.
The women all denied that this was the case, saying “absolutely not” and that the account was “a lie”.
Advocate Herold-Howes pointed out that Mr Arfaoui was still intoxicated two hours after his arrest, several hours after the alleged offending took place.
The prosecution has now closed its case, and the defence is due to start on Monday.
