Bridgerton actress who fought again ‘sociopath’ in Joe & the Juice says she doesn’t belief police to guard her when he’s launched – and admits she feels safer in India than London

A Bridgerton actress who fought back an ‘evil sociopath’ who mugged her in Joe & the Juice says she will be fearing for her life when he is released back onto the streets next year.

Genevieve Chenneour, 28, warned women are no longer safe in Britain as she laid bare her year of hell which has seen her both mugged and assaulted in the space of nine months in London.

She was targeted by phone snatchers in Kensington last February and then suffered an ‘incel’ attack outside Oxford Circus as she was preparing for an audition in November.

In a candid interview with the Daily Mail, she also revealed a third incident where a twisted pervert pulled his trousers town and performed a sex act while she was doing a photoshoot in Los Angeles – just days after the Kensington mugging.

The actress, who plays Clara Livingston in Netflix period drama Bridgerton, admitted that she felt safer on a recent trip to India than she has done in the UK and America in the last year.

Ms Chenneour was last year forced to move out of London after spending eight years in the capital as she no longer has trust in the police to protect her.

The Daily Mail exclusively revealed how the actress bravely fought back as serial thief Zacariah Boulares, 18, snuck up behind her and grabbed her phone at Joe & the Juice, in Kensington, west London, on February 8.

Around 18 months earlier, Boulares had threatened to behead Aled Jones with a machete as he stole his £17,000 Rolex in Chiswick, west London.

Despite having an extensive criminal history, Boulares, described by his own mother as a ‘sociopath’, was jailed for just 22 months after mugging Ms Chenneour. His accomplice, who threatened to slash her face with a knife, is still on the streets.

It means Boulares, who swore at members of the public gallery before he was hauled away by guards, could be back out on the streets by May 2027 – or even earlier.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Ms Chenneour said: ‘He’s a complete monster and a sociopath. He had a 16-inch machete and was photographed with it and threatened to behead someone and is a prolific career criminal.

‘In my mind I believe he is a future murderer. That is not someone that should be walking out on the streets. I don’t trust police to protect me.

‘My phone was taken but I was more terrorised by the fact I’d come into contact with a man that had threatened to behead someone and that was working with someone who had a knife and threatening to stab me in the face. 

‘That would have been the end of my life. It was life-changing in a way that a lot of people haven’t understood. It really wasn’t just about my phone.’

Ms Chenneour lived in London for eight years, but no longer recognises the city that is supposed to serve as a hub for her to flourish in her acting career. 

Although it is a city she once loved, she is now too terrified to walk around London’s streets on her own or even get on a Tube. 

‘I just think there’s a lot of really sick people in London at the moment, mentally unwell’ she says.

In contrast, she breaks into a smile when she speaks about her recent trip to India – where she says she felt comfortable.

‘I travel all the time for work and I was in India the other day. I felt really safe in India. 

‘It was quite interesting because people were coming up to me and fascinated by me and wanted to take pictures of me. And I said that’s fine, just don’t touch me. Someone even gave me their baby to carry. But I had a really nice time.’

But Ms Chenneour admits that London is not alone in making her feel unsafe. 

Just weeks after the Joe & the Juice attack, she was preyed upon while in Los Angeles for the SAG Awards.

‘They’ve got a massive homeless problem and I did have an incident there where I was doing photoshoot and a guy with face tattoos took his pants down and started masturbating over me,’ she revealed.

‘I was with another woman and we called the police and we reported it and we had to run and I left my shoes there.’

There is a sadness in her eyes as she talks about her feelings about the current state of the world. ‘We are regressing,’ she says. ‘Look at Iran, look how beautiful it used to be with women walking around with their hair down, beautiful fashion, affluent, that’s when a city thrives is when a woman feels safe to express herself.

‘We’ve almost got Stockholm syndrome to the base level of misogyny. We’ve normalised stuff that really isn’t normal.’

While she would love to move back to London for her work, Ms Chenneour does not feel she is ready to return.

‘When I first lived in London and first started acting, I worked as a high-end waitress for millionaires and I’ve even worked for the Royal Family at an event.

‘I would do nights there and then I’d go back to a guardianship building, nothing fancy. That’s how I’d pay for my acting classes. 

‘I did it all on my own, and I used to take the bus at night. I used to walk at night. I never really had any problems.

‘I wasn’t scared but I think there’s a lot of trending violence happening at the moment.’

She is referring to phone thefts and another ‘incel trend’ she has been targeted by, where men walk into women as hard as they can which is what happened to her outside Oxford Circus in November.

‘It undermines them, makes them lose their confidence in themselves. It scares them. It questions them. It’s a tactical move, and that’s an incel inspired trend.’

Ms Chenneour, who born in a military family, is a former Team GB swimmer and trains in boxing has fought back on both occasions.

‘The first guy targeted me because he thought she’s white, she looks wealthy, she’ll let her phone go, she seems clueless. 

‘He doesn’t know I’ve come from a military family, and I was a professional athlete and a stunt performer so he really did choose the wrong person.

‘I’ve been doing stunts for 10 years after being a professional athlete and my body just kicked in to this insane kind of animalistic strength.

‘I was kicking and strangling and fighting and hitting as hard as I could, and I was hit over the head so hard that it went black.’

Ms Chenneour said women in society have ‘the shame put onto us’, adding: ‘Those two weeks I spent concussed on my own, I’ve never felt so alone and terrified, and I didn’t know where to go and what to do

‘I felt completely unimportant in this community and society. It was a wake up call for me that we need to be angry women. 

‘I think the way that men keep power over us is by saying that we’re crazy and we’re angry and actually look at the history and look how far we’ve come as women and how far we’ve got to go, and look at what’s happening all over the world, we need to be angry. 

‘I’m happy to be labelled crazy and angry to move things forward. I don’t mind intimidating men.

‘They’re so vulnerable and lost. I think originally, we had religion to keep people in the straight and narrow. People really built their belief systems. Originally, I think we were much more of a faith based country.’

Ms Chenneour is reluctant to move back to London, currently terrified of what the city has become.

A big wake-up call for her was when 24-year-old Blue Stevens was knifed to death outside a five-star hotel in Knightsbridge last July. 

‘That was really frightening for me,’ she said. ‘What was the difference between him and me? I could be dead. It’s taken me nine, ten months to really understand my feelings to what happened.

‘Seeing that was a big, I just froze and felt devastated for him and his family. What was the difference? That person was just more willing to stab.’

Ms Chenneour believes that ‘all big cities’ can attract bad people but she constantly has to be in London for her acting career. 

In a message to Londoners, she says: ‘Anybody that’s living here, we have to work together, we have to assimilate. We have to get on and have a sense of community. We need to learn together in this city.’