Migrant convicted of raping 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton

Afghan boat migrant, 23, abducted and repeatedly raped terrified 12-year-old girl just months after illegal Channel crossing. He now faces years behind bars and deportation. An Afghan asylum seeker has been convicted at Warwick Crown Court of abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.

Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was unanimously found guilty of one count of rape of a child under 13, two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, child abduction and taking an indecent video of a child.

He had previously pleaded guilty to a separate count of rape before the 10-day trial began.

Mulakhil arrived in the UK by small boat from France in March 2025, four months before the offences on 22 July last year.

Read more: Sex predator, 24, jailed for 7 years over child grooming

His co-defendant, Mohammad Kabir, 24, also an Afghan national, was acquitted of intentional strangulation, attempting to abduct a child and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

The jury heard that Mulakhil targeted the girl after she was approached in a park where she had been playing on swings.

Prosecutors said he led her to a secluded cul-de-sac where he carried out the attacks.

The victim told police that during the offences Mulakhil laughed while she repeatedly told him to stop.

Read more: Glasgow predator jailed for raping student in city centre

When asked what he said on response, she said: “Nothing. He was just laughing. I was saying ‘get off me’. He didn’t say anything, he just carried on.”

Mulakhil told officers he believed the girl was 19 and that she had initiated contact, claiming it was his first sexual encounter.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Daniel Oscroft described Mulakhil’s account as “pretty revolting”, telling the jury: “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.”