An asylum seeker has been found guilty of abducting and raping a 12-year-old in a “targeted” attack in Warwickshire.
Afghan national Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, whose victim said he laughed while attacking her last summer, was found guilty of rape and two counts of sexual assault.
He admitted a further rape charge before his trial.
Jurors at Warwick Crown Court also convicted him of child abduction and taking an indecent video of the girl during her ordeal near a residential cul-de-sac.
His co-defendant, Mohammad Kabir, also an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, was acquitted of charges of intentional strangulation, attempted child abduction and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.
Kabir, who is 24 according to court documents but told jurors he is 22, was cleared after maintaining that he never touched the victim and had no sexual intentions towards her.
The incident sparked protests in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Jurors at a ten-day trial were told that Mulakhil arrived in the UK four months before the rapes and had made an immigration application linked to “problems” he had experienced in Afghanistan.
The trial was not told that Mulakhil arrived in Britain by small boat, or that Kabir had entered the UK by the same method on Christmas Day in 2024.
The men’s arrest and charge prompted Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch to claim there had been a “cover-up” of details about the attack.
Speaking in August, Mr Farage also suggested that the immigration status of people charged with offences should be released by police forces.
While guidance for police has since changed to allow forces to give nationality and ethnicity details if there is a legitimate policing purpose, forces still do not confirm crime suspects’ immigration status.
Jurors deliberated for more than seven hours over three days before reaching their verdicts.
Remanding Mulakhil in custody for sentence on a date to be fixed, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said of him: “He will plainly receive a substantial custodial sentence which will automatically make him liable for deportation at its conclusion.”
She also thanked the jury for discharging their duties without paying any regard to “noise” surrounding the proceedings.
