A 37-year-old North Carolina doctor found guilty of raping a 27-year-old woman in September 2023 at a Marriott hotel near the airport was sentenced to six years in state prison, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
The man, Nizar Fathallach Saleh Abdelfattah, was found guilty by a jury of rape and forcible digital penetration in March after around a day of deliberations. Aside from his prison sentence, he will pay restitution of $8,506 and register permanently as a sex offender.
Abdelfattah met the victim, a Stanford Ph.D. candidate, on an online dating app and invited her to his hotel after a drink, at which point he sexually assaulted her.
The victim, who chose to remain anonymous, citing privacy concerns, shared her story and testified at trial. She said previously that hearing Abdelfattah was found guilty and would go to prison gave her an enormous sense of relief, she said.
“As soon as they told me, I was crying. And really, there was that sense of, ‘he can’t hurt me anymore. He can’t hurt other women anymore. He is at least going to jail for a while now,’” she said.
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