Staff Reporter, Daily Dawn, Dawn TV Report
London: An Afghan refugee in the UK has been found guilty of the serious crime of kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old girl.
The incident sparked protests in the town, with protesters holding St George’s Crosses and Union flags and marching along the main road, chanting “stop the boats” and “we want our country back.”
At Warwick Crown Court, the accused, identified as Mulkhel, was unanimously found guilty of two counts of rape and sexual assault. He had also pleaded guilty to another charge of rape before his trial. The jury also found him guilty of kidnapping the girl and making an indecent video of her during the incident.
Malkhel told the court that he did not force the girl to do anything or threaten her family, but he did videotape her during a brief sexual act, allegedly at her request. Malkhel told police that he believed the girl was 19 years old and that it was her first sexual encounter, which she said she initiated herself.
Co-accused Mohammad Kabir, an Afghan national, was acquitted of charges of intentional strangulation, attempted child abduction and sexual assault. According to court documents, Kabir is 24 years old, but he told the jury he was 22. The court acquitted him on the grounds that he had maintained that he did not touch the victim and had no sexual intentions.
The jury was told that Mulkhel had arrived in the UK four months before the rapes and had applied for immigration because of problems he had experienced in Afghanistan, but it was not revealed during the trial whether he had arrived in the UK by small boat, or whether Mohammed Kabir had also entered the UK in the same way on Christmas Day 2024. Mulkhel has been remanded in custody and a sentencing date will be set at a later date. Judge Christina Montgomery KC said: “The defendant will certainly be sentenced to a long prison sentence, at the end of which he will automatically be eligible for deportation.”
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