An Afghan asylum seeker who crossed the Channel in a small boat has been jailed for 15 years after abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, carried out the attack just four months after arriving in the UK, targeting the schoolgirl before luring her into a secluded cul-de-sac where he repeatedly assaulted her.
During a 10-day trial at Warwick Crown Court, jurors heard how Mulakhil filmed the attack on his phone while laughing and threatening to kill the girl’s family. He was later convicted of rape, child abduction, sexual assault and taking indecent images of a minor.
Sentencing him, Judge Kristina Montgomery said there was no doubt he had deliberately targeted the victim, who appeared “stressed and hypervigilant” after his initial approach.
The court heard Mulakhil first approached the girl in a park before encountering her again later the same evening. CCTV captured him asking her age, after which he led her away and carried out the assault.
In a recorded statement, the victim said she begged him to stop as he continued the attack, recalling how he laughed and made threats against her family.
Afterwards, Mulakhil was seen on CCTV taking the distressed girl to a nearby shop, where he bought two cans of Red Bull using a Home Office-issued Aspen card—a taxpayer-funded debit card provided to asylum seekers.
That transaction helped police identify him, and he was arrested at his home four days later.
The girl was later found in a park by members of the public, who alerted emergency services. Prosecutors said she continues to suffer severe psychological trauma and ongoing medical issues.
Mulakhil had claimed he believed the girl was 19, but the jury rejected his account.
Protests gathered outside Warwick Crown Court ahead of sentencing, with demonstrators holding banners reading “Stop the invasion – end immigration,” as the case intensified debate over border control and asylum policy.
