Afghan found guilty in UK of raping 12-year-old girl
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Ahmad Mulakhil was convicted on Feb 10 of two counts of raping a child under 13 in July 2025, and will be sentenced at a later date.
PHOTO: WEST MIDLANDS POLICE
- Afghan asylum seeker Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was found guilty on Feb 10 of raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, plus other sexual offences.
- The case sparked protests and a political row after police initially withheld Mulakhil's asylum seeker status, fuelling immigration debates.
- Mulakhil attacked the victim in a secluded cul-de-sac and awaits sentencing. Co-defendant Mohammad Kabir was found not guilty of related charges.
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LONDON - An Afghan was on Feb 10 found guilty in an English court of raping a 12-year-old girl, in a case that sparked local protests and a political row when his status as an asylum seeker was not initially disclosed by police.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was convicted of two counts of raping a child under 13 in Nuneaton, central England, in July 2025, after a trial at Warwick Crown Court.
He had previously pleaded guilty to a further count of rape and was also found guilty of abducting a child, two counts of sexual assault and making indecent images of a child.
His co-defendant, Mohammad Kabir, 24, was found not guilty of attempting to take a child, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence and intentional strangulation in connection with an earlier encounter with the victim on the same day.
Anti-immigration activists have seized on other criminal cases involving asylum seekers, predominantly young men and particularly those housed in hotels, to argue that they are a danger to nearby communities.
Pro-migrant groups, however, have said far-right groups and opportunistic politicians are deliberately seeking to exploit and inflame tensions for their own ends.
Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft told jurors at the start of Mulakhil’s trial in January that Mulakhil had led the victim to a “secluded cul-de-sac... where he raped her, sexually assaulted her and took indecent images of her”.
Mulakhil will be sentenced at a later date. REUTERS
