Rapist used CouchSurfing website to lure victim

This won’t look good for the world’s love-your-neighbor couch-surfing networks:

A man who raped a tourist in an “appalling” attack in his own home after inviting her to stay with him was today put behind bars for 10 years. Abdelali Nachet, 34, attacked the woman from Hong Kong after offering her a place to stay on travellers’ website CouchSurfing…

She contacted Morrocon-born Nachet after seeing his adverstisement but after arriving at his home in the Moortown area of Leeds she was raped by her host who also threatened to kill her.

Police said her attacker “preyed on the kindness and hospitality of those using the internet to meet new people and explore new places.”

Hopefully this won’t cause any real problems for CouchSurfing (which is awesome, in theory, but not something I’m likely to use). Blaming the site for the attack is akin to holding Craigslist responsible whenever a criminal uses the service to find a victim.

Still: caveat viator.

via CouchSurfing rapist jailed for attack on traveller | Metro.co.uk .