A 12-year-old girl was raped in a daylight attack after being “targeted” by two asylum seekers, a court was told.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, abducted the schoolgirl from a street before repeatedly raping her and taking photographs of the attack, Warwick crown court was told.
Mulakhil has admitted a charge of oral rape but says sexual activity that took place was consensual and “initiated” by the girl. He denies two other counts of rape, abducting a child, two counts of sexual assault and taking indecent photographs of a child.
His friend, Mohammad Kabir, 24, denies attempting to take the girl, strangling her and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.
Daniel Oscroft, for the prosecution, said both men “targeted” the girl after spotting her near a park in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in July last year. Kabir put his hands around her neck and attempted to get her to come with him, it is claimed.
“The only logical conclusion for why he wanted to take her away was for some sexual purpose,” said Oscroft. “What possible alternative could there have been?”
The girl refused to go with Kabir but was approached by Mulakhil later the same day, the court was told. CCTV later captured Mulakhil with the girl, who told him she was 19. “It was obvious she was not 19, she was a young child,” said Oscroft. “It was such an obvious lie. It’s clear that from Mr Mulakhil’s reaction, he didn’t believe her.”
Mulakhil then “led her away to a secluded cul-de-sac where he raped her”, the court was told. He also allegedly took indecent images of his girl which were later found on his phone.
The girl she was eventually found in a park and told an adult: “He raped me”, the court was told. “She appeared distressed, and apparently scanning the bushes, asking where ‘he’ has gone, and saying ‘he’ is coming for her,” said Oscroft. “She immediately disclosed that she had been sexually assaulted.”
Mulakhil’s DNA was found on the girl’s neck and inside her shorts, the court was told. In police interviews he accepted meeting the girl twice that day and said he believed she looked in her twenties. Oscroft said: “The prosecution say that it would be obvious to anyone that she was a very young, vulnerable child. She was obviously immature.”
In a videotaped statement, the girl said Mulakhil was “laughing” as he carried out the attack and threatened to kill her family.
She described first seeing Mulakhil and Kabir in a park as she played on a zip-wire. The girl said the men “stared” at her and Kabir pulled “sexual faces” before they spoke to her on a nearby bridge. “They were asking my age. I said I was 12. They said they didn’t care,” said the girl.
The girl said Kabir then grabbed her from behind and tried to strangle her. “I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe,” she said.
The girl said she ran off but later came across Mulakhil on a nearby housing estate. “I was walking and saw him. He spoke to me, and said come with me, so I went with him,” she said. “We got behind a shed thing. He was saying that he liked me. I said, ‘I don’t like you. I’m young. I’m a kid’.
“He had a translator on his phone. He was acting weird. He put his hands on me and I told him to stop,” she said. “He was trying to strip my clothes off. He said nothing. He was laughing.”
The girl then told how she was sexually assaulted and raped by Mulakhil. “He was saying he was going to kill my family. I was scared. He took photos. It felt weird. Why was he taking pictures of that?”
The trial continues.