Concord man, 73, convicted of raping 20-year-old in restaurant bathroom

A Concord man was convicted Friday of raping a woman in the bathroom of a sandwich restaurant in 2023, according to prosecutors.

Elie Jemal, 73, was convicted of rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years of age, the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. statement. He was sentenced to 13 to 15 years in prison for the rape, followed by 5 years of probation for the assault conviction.

On July 9, 2023, the 20-year-old victim was eating at a restaurant in Sandwich and left her table to use the bathroom. In the hallway, she met Jamal, whom she did not know, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Jamal made a suggestive comment to the victim, pushed her against a hallway wall, sexually assaulted her, and demanded that she give him her phone number. Prosecutors said the victim fled to the women’s restroom, but Jamal followed her inside and sexually assaulted her again.

After Jamal left the bathroom, the victim began calling for help, the prosecutor’s office said. Since she had been away from her table for a while, a family friend went to check on her and found her hiding in one of the bathroom stalls.

The victim’s mother and another family friend confronted Jamal outside the restaurant, and he claimed she approached him. They called police, but Jamal had walked away by the time they arrived, according to prosecutors.

In November 2023, Jamal was indicted on the charges of which he was later convicted. The prosecutor’s office said that before sentencing him, the court indicated that he was not drunk at all and that his actions were motivated by a “shocking sense of entitlement.”

“A 20-year-old woman was having dinner with her family. She left the table to use the facilities and was sexually assaulted by a 70-year-old man in the hallway. Her courage in confronting him in court in front of a jury was exemplary,” Robert Galebois, Cape and Islands Public Prosecutor, said on Facebook. “Thank you to my team and police investigators for believing in her and getting justice.”

Jamal’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday morning.