{"id":418516,"date":"2026-02-10T19:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418516\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:10:07","slug":"afghan-asylum-seeker-found-guilty-of-abducting-and-raping-12-year-old-girl-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418516\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan asylum seeker found guilty of abducting and raping 12-year-old girl | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Afghan asylum seeker has been found guilty of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Warwickshire.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, &#8220;targeted&#8221; the child after spotting her in a park in Nuneaton last July, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>The attack sparked protests in the town, with demonstrators holding St George&#8217;s Cross flags and Union flags as they marched along the high street chanting &#8220;stop the boats&#8221; and &#8220;we want our country back&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mulakhil was unanimously convicted at Warwick Crown Court of rape and two counts of sexual assault, having admitted a further rape charge before his trial.<\/p>\n<p>Jurors also convicted him of child abduction and taking an indecent video of the girl during her ordeal.<\/p>\n<p>He had told the court he did not force the girl to do anything, and did not threaten her family, but had filmed her, at her insistence, during a brief period of sexual activity.<\/p>\n<p>Mulakhil told police he believed the girl was 19 and that she had initiated what was his first sexual encounter.<\/p>\n<p>Co-defendant Mohammad Kabir, also an Afghan national, was acquitted of intentional strangulation, attempted child abduction and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.<\/p>\n<p>Kabir, who is 24 according to court documents but told jurors he was 22, was cleared after maintaining he never touched the victim and had no sexual intentions towards her.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skynews-warwickshire-justice-centre_7003570.jpg\"   alt=\"The trial was held at Warwick Crown Court. Pic: PA\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        The trial was held at Warwick Crown Court. Pic: PA<\/p>\n<p>Jurors were told Mulakhil arrived in the UK four months before the rapes and had made an immigration application linked to &#8220;problems&#8221; he had experienced in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>The trial was not told he had arrived in Britain by small boat, or that Kabir had entered the UK by the same method on Christmas Day in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/teenager-sentenced-for-murder-of-12-year-old-leo-ross-who-was-stabbed-in-random-attack-13505547\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Teen sentenced for murder of 12-year-old in random attack<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/majority-of-people-think-the-king-should-encourage-andrew-to-testify-about-epstein-poll-13505704\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">King should encourage Andrew to testify about Epstein &#8211; poll<\/a><\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" data-testid=\"app-promo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The men&#8217;s arrest and charge prompted Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch to claim there had been a &#8220;cover-up&#8221; of details about the attack.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Mr Farage also suggested police should release the immigration status of people charged with offences.<\/p>\n<p>Guidance for police has since changed to allow forces to give nationality and ethnicity details if there is a legitimate policing purpose &#8211; but forces still do not confirm the immigration status of crime suspects.<\/p>\n<p>Mulakhil was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said: &#8220;He will plainly receive a substantial custodial sentence which will automatically make him liable for deportation at its conclusion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She thanked jurors for discharging their duties without paying regard to the &#8220;noise&#8221; surrounding the proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Afghan asylum seeker has been found guilty of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Warwickshire. Ahmad&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-418516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}