Hotel migrant Yousif Al-Maliki jailed for serious assault on woman in hostel

A hotel migrant who raped a woman in a bed in a hostel when he was ‘not prepared to take no for an answer’ has been jailed.

Iraqi Yousif Al-Maliki, 31, attacked the woman, who was a student from India, after they had been drinking in Soho before they arrived at the Astor Hostel in South Kensington on 1 August 2025.

The two of them had been allocated beds at the hostel.

The woman said that she did not tell anyone what was happening to her because she was worried that she would be thrown out of the hostel, as it was against the rules to have him in her bed.

Al-Maliki was previously deported, but came back to the UK in September 2024 on a boat.

He claimed that he was fleeing torture in Baghdad because he is bisexual and is seeking asylum.

When he was charged he was staying at the Peckham Lodge Hotel in South London.

Sentencing Al-Maliki, Judge Christopher Hehir said: ‘You met her only a few hours before you raped her.’

‘The problem was you were not prepared to take no for an answer.

‘Throughout the hours that preceeded the rape I am sure that your intention was to have sex with her.

‘You decided to have sex with her come what may whether she consented or not.

‘She was making it clear that she did not want to have sex. Eventually she stopped saying anything and she effectively zoned out.’

The next morning the woman said that she told Al-Maliki that she had bled as a result of the rape.

‘Your response was to laugh at her,’ said Judge Hehir.

When Al-Maliki appeared to shake his head and put his hand up in the dock the judge said:’You have instructed your defence lawyer to say that you are sorry, but you are not sorry at all.

You are sorry that you have been convicted and that you are going to prison.’

Al-Maliki was jailed for six and a half years, and he will be subject to notification requirements for the rest of his life.

Judge Hehir said that he could be deported after he had served his sentence.

‘You are an asylum claimant. The length of your sentence makes you automatically liable for deportation.

That is a matter for the secretary of state, not for me. I simply observe that you are a convicted rapist, and that I cannot conceivably see how it is in the public interest for you to remain in the country if you can be deported elsewhere.’

A jury at Southwark crown court convicted Al-Maliki of one count of rape, but was cleared of assault by penetration and sexual assault.

Prosecutor Jose Olivares-Chandler said earluer Al-Maliki and the woman went out drinking in Soho after they met last summer.

‘The complainant repeatedly told the defendant that she wasn’t interested in having sex, to which he replied by making a bet with her that they would have sex that day.

‘When they returned to the hostel, they sat on a sofa in the communal lounge and cuddled to which the complainant consented.

‘The defendant then started to touch her sexually to which the complainant said no, moving his hands away.

‘They both then returned to the shared bedroom area. Whilst the complainant did not want the defendant to get into her bed, when he nonetheless did so, she thought it was okay as they could cuddle.

‘The defendant then started to engage the complainant in sexual activity in response to which the complainant made it clear that she didn’t want to have sex.’

Mr Olivares-Chandler said the woman’s words ‘fell on deaf ears’ as Al-Maliki raped her.

‘The complainant was scared that if other residents saw what was happening, she may be kicked out of the hostel, so she retrieved a bed covering she described as a comforter and hung it around the bed.

‘The defendant was unrelenting however and tried to put his hands under her shorts, to which she said no.’

Mr Olivares-Chandler told jurors: ‘You may think it was clear as day that the complainant didn’t consent to any sexual activity between them and that the defendant didn’t have any belief in her consent, let alone a reasonable belief.’

The prosecutor said the pair then fell asleep and the next morning ‘they had a conversation about the night before during which the complainant accused the defendant of raping her, an assertion he disputed.’

The woman reported the offences to police on 2 August.

Following his arrest Al-Maliki told detectives in interview that the complainant wanted to have sex with him and she was an ‘active participant’.