Violent Edinburgh domestic and sexual abuser handed maximum five-year jail term
A violent domestic abuser who carried out a savage campaign of attacks on his partner has been sentenced to the maximum term of five years in jail.
Kamal Alaroush, 62, forced the woman to carry out sick sex acts on him and one shocking incident saw him point an air rifle at the terrified victim’s head.
Alaroush assaulted the woman on numerous occasions during their relationship, constantly monitored the her movements and even dictated what food she could eat over a 16 month period.
The “physical, emotional and sexual” abuse came to an end following a stand-off with police after a neighbour reported hearing screaming and shouting coming from the couple’s flat in Edinburgh in July 2020.
Alaroush, a Libyan national, denied all the allegations but was found guilty by a jury following a four-day trial at the capital’s sheriff court earlier this year.
He was due to appear for sentencing on Friday, August 1, but the court was told he had declined to engage with his defence advocate Iain Smith and refused to leave the custody cell and enter the dock.
Sheriff Julius Komorowski agreed to sentence the attacker in the court’s cell complex but when the lawman stood in front of Alaroush he was shouted down. Alaroush forced the sheriff to abandon the sentencing in the cell complex when he claimed he was in front of “a kangaroo court” and began loudly chanting in Arabic.
The sheriff reconvened the hearing in a court room where prosecutor Xander van der Scheer said the victim is “absolutely terrified of the accused” and now suffers from complex PTSD and agoraphobia due the abuse.
Sheriff Komorowski said: “This was an absolutely appalling, sustained and terrifying passage of behaviour which included sustained and repeated gross indignities on [the woman].”
The sheriff imposed the maximum custodial term allowed of five years and placed Alaroush on the sex offenders register for life. A lifelong non-harassment order banning Alaroush from having any contact with the woman was also issued by the court.
Previously the jury heard the woman’s evidence via a video link where she said the couple had met while he was on holiday in 2018 and she moved into his home a few months later.
The victim said the bar and restaurant worker soon became abusive towards her by controlling who she socialised with, deciding what food she could eat, and making offensive and derogatory remarks.
He also kicked her on the body and she described one terrifying incident where the thug pointed an air rifle at her head while he was cleaning the weapon in his kitchen. The woman also told the jury she was forced to regularly perform sex acts including masturbation and oral sex against her will when he demanded it.
The abuse came to a halt when the woman was locked in the couple’s home at the Polwarth area of the capital and a neighbour informed the police of the disturbance in July 2020.
Alaroush refused to open the door or to release the woman and the court heard she was so scared of her attacker she had held an officer’s hand through the letterbox for comfort. The court was told police were eventually forced to use a battering ram to gain entry to the property.
Alaroush denied all the offences against him and told the court the woman was a heroin addict and would invite other drug users into his home against his will. He said he would spend his day shopping and cooking for both of them and most of his spare time was spent visiting his local Mosque several times a day to pray.
Alaroush was found guilty of engaging in a course of conduct that was abusive of his partner between between April 1, 2019 and August 19, 2020. He was also found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and struggling with police officers at his home on July 29, 2020