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A WOULD-BE rapist who 'strangled' a woman during a violent sex attack after a night out has been jailed.
Sex offender Khaled Meridja, of Brampton Road, Oxford, had denied one count of attempted rape, one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two of sexual assault.
At the end of his trial at Oxford Crown Court in August jurors took four hours and 31 minutes of deliberations to find him unanimously guilty of all counts.
At his sentencing hearing at the same court today his defence barrister revealed that the 29-year-old still 'stands by his instructions' despite his conviction.
During the case, prosecutor Sally Hobson told jurors the attack on the woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – began with a night out.
The victim was out in Oxford with a friend on the night of October 21 last year before going to Euro Bar and then on to JT’s Cocktail Bar & Club.
It was not long after that in the early hours of the following morning they met Meridja, neither having met him before and neither knowing him.
While at Meridja’s home the assaults on the teenage victim and attempted rape all took place.
Detailing her ordeal the victim said it made her feel like she was 'going to die.'
She said: “[Meridja] was grabbing hold of my breasts and I [said] ‘what the hell are you doing get off me’ and then he pushed me up against the wall.
“Then he was strangling me so much I could not breathe.
"He was just strangling me and I didn’t know what to do.”
She said that she tried to fight him off and during the incident he sexually touched her and tried to pull down her trousers.
Describing how she felt she said: “I just thought I was going to die.”
The court heard at yesterday's sentencing how the attack had 'forever changed' the woman who said she also now suffers sleep difficulties as a result of her ordeal.
In mitigation defence barrister Graeme Logan said his client 'stands by his instructions' given during his trial.
He added, however, that Meridja 'understands he has to be sentenced'.
It was also revealed that Meridja had first come to the UK illegally in a lorry after fleeing Algeria before travelling through France.
Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb called the offence a 'determined attempt' to rape the teenager.
She added: "This incident only ended because she got away from you and not because you desisted.
"She fled and fell down the stairs during the course of it [...] and was helped by a bus driver who took her to St Aldate's .
"I commend the public spiritedness and responsible [action] taken by the lady bus driver who helped a young woman clearly in distress."
He was jailed for a total of seven and a half years and must sign the sex offenders register for life.