Man strangled gay victim and went back to strip club - James Foley convicted of manslaughter of Algerian Fethi Bouchareb

Published: 09 December 2010
by DAVID ST GEORGE

A MAN who left a party at a lap-dancing club in Bloomsbury, throttled a stranger and returned to join his friends again, has been jailed at the Old Bailey.

Jurors cleared caterer James Foley of murder but he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three and a half years.

Foley, 21, who was engaged at the time, said he was “ashamed” to allow himself to be picked up and have sexual contact with his gay victim.

He said the man, Algerian Fethi Bouchareb, 26, from Finsbury Park, well known to police as a sneak thief in the West End, stole his Rolex watch and £140 during a sexual encounter in Bedford Square.

Foley, from Dartford, Kent, claimed he fought with Bouchareb and strangled him “in fear of my life”, leaving him unconscious on a pathway believing he would be all right.

Office workers found the body on March 25,

Prosecutor Dunan Penny showed jurors CCTV footage of Foley leaving Spearmint Rhino’s in Tottenham Court Road just after midnight and returning at 2am.