Ex-wife of serial killer who killed sex workers desperately wants help to find ‘kidnapped’ son

The ex-wife of a serial killer convicted of murdering and torturing several sex workers has made a desperate plea for help to find her son.

Lobna Yakout, 33, was married to Karim Selim for six years before they called it quits, with Yakout taking their young son Zayn to live with her when she moved out of their home in Cairo, Egypt.

But a year later, she claims the six-year-old boy was “abducted” during a visit with his father.

Despite desperate efforts to get him back, the distraught mother says she “hasn’t seen him since”.

The situation became even more difficult after the British-born Yakut fled to her native country after Selim allegedly threatened her with repeated violence.

Things escalated further when the 37-year-old was arrested and later convicted of drugging, sexually abusing and murdering three women in a soundproof room inside his opulent home.

His crimes are said to have “sent shockwaves” through the conservative Arab country after it was revealed that Selim had engaged in sexual acts with his unidentified wives both before and after their deaths.

Video footage of his necrophiliac acts with the dead bodies of his victims, as well as CCTV footage showing Selim on his way to and from disposing of the corpses, were shown in court, earning the convicted killer some disturbing nicknames. , including the “New Cairo Series”. Killer”.

“I didn’t believe it. I thought he decided because he did everything to find me … so I would go back to Egypt and he would take me,” she said. The people recently.

“My mom and I were shocked, it was crazy.”

But even after Selim’s horrors were revealed – the former teacher is currently awaiting his death sentence in an Egyptian prison – Yakout claims she has not been able to regain custody of her son, now 10.

In a viral TikTok video titled, “I Was Married to a Serial Killer for Seven and a Half Years,” the mother states that she has filed all the necessary paperwork with the authorities, but he is still with his paternal grandmother, which she has not been able to overcome. to locate.

“When it was closed, he told the police that I was dead, so his mom took my son… I have every right, I have full custody, but I just can’t find this woman,” she claimed in the clip. . which has been viewed 22.5 million times.

She also revealed how she was separated from her son, claiming her ex-husband “tried to kill me every time I tried to get to him (Zayn)”.

“It was a nightmare, he would show up in places and I would have to run.

“I’m dying to see my son, I’m dying to talk to him again. I need my son.”

During her interview with The peopleYakout described the last exchange he had with Zayn before he disappeared.

“If you’re taken from me, find me, that’s the last thing I said to him,” she claimed.

Before he was sentenced, Selim had amassed a huge following on TikTok by learning American slang words, which some have since labeled as “boring” and “disturbing”.

Statistically, about 7.8 million Egyptian women are subjected to some form of gender-based violence every year, according to a UN survey published in 2015.

Cairo has also been described as “the world’s most dangerous megacity for women”.