An Afghan man who crossed the Channel by boat and sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl previously worked for the Taliban, court findings have revealed.
He has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison after a jury convicted him of kidnapping and sexually assaulting the seven-year-old at a Government-funded hotel in Acton, West London.
Afsar Safi, 30, arrived in Britain in 2021 and was residing at the accommodation when the offence took place in September.
During his sentencing at Isleworth Crown Court, it was disclosed that his asylum application stated he had been associated with the Taliban from the age of ten.
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The court heard that Safi enticed the young girl away from her mother using an apple before forcibly pulling her along a corridor by her arm.
He then took the child to his hotel room, where the assault occurred.
The victim managed to escape after she attracted the attention of security personnel at the publicly funded accommodation.
Safi was subsequently arrested and charged with kidnapping and sexual assault, offences for which a jury found him guilty.
Afsar Safi kidnapped and sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl
|MET POLICE
The young girl provided harrowing testimony to the jury about her ordeal.
"I could not tell him to go away because I was too scared," she told the court.
"He put his arms around me. It feels like he's coming after me all the time."
The girl described the lasting psychological impact of the attack, explaining that her sleep is plagued by disturbing visions of the incident.
"My nightmares feel like they are real, so I cry sometimes," she said.
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Ssfi's links with the Taliban were known from his asylum application
|GETTY
The judge at Isleworth Crown Court handed Safi a prison sentence of two and a half years and ordered that he be placed on the sex offenders register for a period of seven years.
However, the 30-year-old could potentially be released on licence within just six months.
It emerged during the sentencing hearing that Safi had declared on his asylum paperwork that he had been with the Taliban since he was ten years old.
His application for asylum was rejected, and he is currently appealing that decision.
Speaking through a Pashto interpreter during the proceedings, Safi offered his explanation for his actions.
"I like children and she was a child," he stated.
"I asked her where she was going. She said she was waiting for her mother to go shopping.
"I kissed her to the face. I kissed her out of the love for children. Back home, all the people do that."
His legal representative argued that Safi had been enslaved by the Taliban as a child and had received only three years of formal education.