Afghan small boat migrant guilty of abducting and raping 12-year-old girl

Prosecutors ruled Mulakhil and co-defendant Mohammad Kabir intended to take her away for a sexual purpose, with Mulakhil raping her after 8pm.

Mulakhil told police: “She told my friend she’s 19, but I didn’t ask her."

Afghan national Mulahkil was unanimously convicted of the above offences and cleared of a second count of rape after jurors deliberated for more than seven hours.

The jury in the Warwick Crown Court rape trial was sent home until Tuesday after failing to reach verdicts on Monday.

Kabir, who also an Afghan national, was acquitted of intentional strangulation, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence and attempting to abduct a child.

Mulakhil was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

Both men had been living in the UK for around four months, with Kabir, of no fixed address, denying intentional strangulation, attempted child abduction and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

During the trial, it was alleged Kabir made sexual faces towards the girl and intended to take her away for a sexual purpose, before she was raped by Mulahkil.

Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft used his closing speech durign the trial to submit both men had a sexual interest in the victim.

Mulakhil told the court he did "not force the girl to do anything" and did not threaten her family, but had filmed her during a brief period of sexual activity because "she had insisted".

Addressing the court on Thursday, Mr Oscroft told a jury of seven men and five women Mulakhil had shown “a pretty stomach-churning” approach to the evidence.

Mr Oscroft added: “There was no hint in the evidence he gave of any pause for reflection or to consider that in retrospect he made a mistake. He is blaming her.

“He has tried to argue that he believed she was an adult – that he initially didn’t want anything to do with it – that she drove all of it, and that she consented throughout.”

Marcus Harry, defending Mulakhil, invited the jury to consider whether the defendant believed the girl was 16 or over.

The defence lawyer said: “Ahmad Mulakhil tells you that he believed she was 20 or 22. You know from the video evidence that she told him she was 19.

“You have seen her yourself. My learned friend says she is obviously under 16 and you may agree.

“If you think it is possible that he believed she was 16 or over then he cannot be guilty of child abduction.”

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