‘Rapist media boss threatened to cut his victim to pieces’

A QATARI media boss raped a woman in his £1.5million flat and threatened to ‘cut her to pieces’, a court heard yesterday.

Saleh Al-Mesallam, 32, is accused of repeated sexual and physical assaults carried out from January to March.

A jury was told he took the woman’s phone and wallet so she could not escape and changed her social media passwords to stop her contacting friends. The woman, who cannot be named, went to police after allegedly waking to find a knife, plastic bag and tape had been put next to her while she slept.

An interpreter acting on her behalf claimed Al-Mesallam also threatened to ‘cut her in pieces’. She attended hospital in London on March 6 with a broken elbow and multiple cuts and bruises. ‘The doctor was initially told by her that she had fallen down the day before and she had pain and limited movement in her left shoulder,’ said rebecca Foulkes, prosecuting.

‘in his view, her injuries did not appear to be the result of a fall, as he also noticed bruises to her left breast. She told him she had been abused and assaulted. ‘He had kicked her to the shoulders multiple times, and also stamped on her shoulders.’

Al-Mesallam allegedly dragged her by her hair until he ripped some of it out, and also threatened to shave off her eyebrows before threatening to kill her.

An X-ray revealed her left humerus was fractured, and the doctor noticed bruising to her right shoulder, thighs, a healed cut near her right eyebrow and a small bleed in her right eye, jurors heard.

During a police interview, the woman claimed she had been raped repeatedly.

Yesterday Southwark Crown Court saw footage of the victim weeping as she told police about her ordeal at the flat in

‘Felt he was above the law’

Paddington. The interpreter said: ‘The first time he hit her and then he had sex with her. He said to her that he feels very happy when he hits a woman and then he has sex by force.’

The court was told the defendant, who is the director of a TV news and sports channel, tried to stop her going to police, saying he had naked photographs of her.

‘She felt as if he was above the law,’ said the interpreter. ‘Then he said to her that any case he gets involved in he gets out of it.’

Al-Mesallam denies four counts of rape as well as charges of grievous bodily harm with intent, actual bodily harm, threats to kill and controlling or coercive behaviour.

The trial continues.