LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – An Afghan national was on Friday jailed for 15 years for raping a 12-year-old girl in Britain, 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 after a trial at Warwick Crown Court of one count of raping a child under 13 in Nuneaton, central England, last July.
He had previously pleaded guilty to a further count of rape of a child under 13 and was also found guilty of abducting a child, sexual assault and making indecent images of a child by filming the victim.
Judge Kristina Montgomery said the victim had told Mulakhil that she was 19 years old, but that there was “no doubt that you knew she was aged under 16”.
She sentenced Mulakhil to 15 years in prison, which she said “renders you automatically liable for deportation”.
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.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin)
