Footballer Salim Kouider-Aissa who sexually assaulted sleeping woman loses bid to overturn conviction

A footballer who was jailed for two years after sexually assaulting a sleeping woman has lost a bid to overturn his conviction.

Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected Salim Kouider-Aissa’s claim that he suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Former Airdrie player Kouider-Aissa, 27, was found guilty of the attack on the 23-year-old victim at a flat in Kirkintilloch, in East Dunbartonshire, on October 31 in 2021 following a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court last year.

The woman said she met him at a friend’s flat and later went to a bedroom to sleep, but woke up with him behind her in the bed.

She said: “I went into bed myself and was shocked to have someone behind me. I was shouting ‘what are you doing’ and he said ‘I thought you were awake, what have I done’.

Kouider-Aissa had denied sexually assaulting the woman while she was asleep and incapable of consenting and maintained there was a reasonable belief in consent.

In the appeal brought against his conviction it was argued that a sheriff was wrong to refuse to allow evidence being led that earlier on at the flat Kouider-Aissa and the woman allegedly danced and kissed in the living room.

Solicitor advocate Graeme Brown, for Kouider-Aissa, said that when he climbed into bed beside the woman he believed there was a mutual sexual attraction between them.

He told the appeal judges: “He did so believing there was a mutual sexual attraction from what happened earlier.”

Mr Brown argued that the disallowed evidence was relevant and ought to have been permitted and its absence led to a miscarriage of justice.

Advocate depute Chris McKenna said: “The issue for the trial was focused and straightforward, that being whether the complainer was asleep and therefore incapable of consent.”

He said: “The agreement to dance and kiss, even if it did occur and it was disputed, has no bearing on the digital penetration which occurred later at a point in time when the complainer was asleep.”

He argued that the sheriff was “entirely correct” to refuse that part of the defence application over the evidence.

The Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, sitting with Lord Pentland and Lord Doherty, told Kouider-Aissa, who followed proceedings via a video link to Glasgow’s Barlinnie jail, that the appeal was refused.