Afghan Asylum Seeker Guilty of Raping Girl, 12

An Afghan asylum seeker has been found guilty of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.

Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, took the girl to a quiet cul-de-sac on 22 July and carried out “extremely horrific sexual offences”.

At Warwick Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, abduction, sexual assault and taking an indecent video of the girl.

Co-defendant Mohammad Kabir, 24, also an Afghan asylum seeker, was found not guilty of strangulation, attempted child abduction and attempting to commit a sexual offence.

Jurors at the 10-day trial heard evidence from the victim who said Mulakhil laughed while attacking her.

The case prompted changes to guidance on reporting the nationality and immigration status of people arrested and charged.

There were widespread protests in Nuneaton because those details about the men were not reported by the authorities when they were arrested.

Mulakhil arrived in a small boat from France in March 2025, four months before he raped the girl.

Listening to the jury deliver its verdicts in court, he could be seen crying in the dock and blowing his nose with a tissue.

Remanding Mulakhil in custody to be sentenced next month, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said: “He will plainly receive a substantial custodial sentence which will automatically make him liable for deportation at its conclusion.”

The court heard Mulakhil had made an immigration application linked to “problems” he had experienced in Afghanistan.

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At the time, Warwickshire Police said once someone was charged with an offence, the force followed national guidance that did not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status.

Days later, police were encouraged to consider disclosing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases.

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Mulakhil told police he believed the girl was 19 and that she had initiated what was his first sexual encounter.

Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft described Mulakhil’s attempts to blame his victim as “stomach-churning” and “pretty revolting”.

During his closing speech to the jury, the prosecutor said: “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.”

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