Asylum Seeker Who Groomed & Raped 13-Year-Old Girl in Nottingham Jailed for 9 Years

An Afghan national who groomed a 13-year-old girl on Snapchat by pretending to be a teenager before raping her in a Nottinghamshire nature reserve has been jailed for nine and a half years.

Abdul Khan, 28, arranged to meet the victim in woodland in Clifton on 14 May last year after using the messaging application to falsely claim he was 14 years old.

Following a four-day trial at Nottingham Crown Court, Khan was convicted of two counts of rape, sexual activity with a child, sexual communication with a child, meeting a child following grooming, and perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing Khan, Judge Mark Watson confirmed that the defendant, who entered the United Kingdom illegally in a lorry in 2015, faces automatic deportation after serving two-thirds of his custodial sentence.

The court heard that when the victim met Khan in person and realised he was an adult, he attempted to appease her by falsely claiming he was 16.

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Following initial consensual activity, Khan raped the girl twice before she disclosed the assault to her father, who immediately alerted Nottinghamshire Police.

Khan, currently of HMP Nottingham, was already serving a 23-month sentence for sexual communication with a different child in Derbyshire at the time of the proceedings.

Investigators formally linked him to the Clifton attack through analysis of a mobile phone seized during his arrest for the Derbyshire offence, alongside supporting DNA evidence. Judge Watson noted that Khan had deliberately concealed his true identity throughout the grooming process, leading the child to believe she was interacting with a peer of her own age.

In court, defence counsel Andrew Wesley stated no personal mitigation could be offered, as Khan continued to dispute both his identity and the age under which he was prosecuted.

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Describing the defendant's claims regarding his age as nonsensical, Judge Watson highlighted the profound impact of the offences on the young victim.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, the judge ordered Khan to register as a sex offender indefinitely.