Ivy chef jailed for rape attempt

A French chef working in a famous London restaurant has been jailed for five years for attempting to rape a woman he met at a club.

Adam Traore, 26, who worked at the Ivy, met the woman, also 26, after work and attacked her after luring her to a block of flats, the Old Bailey heard.

Traore, of Plaistow, east London, was convicted of attempted rape and two offences of sexual assault in February.

He denied the allegations, claiming he pushed her after a row over taxi fare.

You carried out a frightening and persistent attack on a young woman Judge Paul Worsley

The jury heard the chef attacked the victim on the sixth-floor landing of the building in east London.

She managed to fight him off and fled, but he went after her and sexually assaulted her outside the flats.

The woman, who was bruised and bleeding from the attack, pounded on the door of a house to seek help.

The day after the attack Traore was sent home from work twice after he turned up drunk, the jury heard.

'No encouragement'

He was arrested weeks after the attack when his DNA was found at the scene.

Sentencing Traore, Judge Paul Worsley said: "You carried out a frightening and persistent attack on a young woman.

"She gave you no encouragement whatsoever."

Traore claimed he had an argument with the victim about a taxi fare and had pushed her to ground on the street and headed for work.

The judge added Traore could be recommended for deportation to France.