An asylum seeker from Afghanistan who raped a teenage girl in a UK park has had his jail sentence reduced. Rapualla Ahmadze, who is also known as Rafiullah Ahmadzai, was jailed for nine years in December, but that has now been dropped to eight years following an appeal.
The 22-year-old, who claimed he was an escaped prisoner of the Taliban, was convicted of raping a girl, 17, in Cooper Park, Elgin, Scotland, on August 4 last year. He approached the victim while she was sitting on a bench before walking her to a children’s play area in the park. He then touched her sexually before taking her to an area of bushes where he pulled down her clothes and raped her. Ahmadze denied the allegations, insisting the sex was consensual. He told the court he had been out in the early hours searching for food because he was hungry.
Defence lawyer Shaun Alexander said Ahmadze had previously been captured by the Taliban before escaping Afghanistan in 2022. He later arrived in the UK in 2023 after experiencing what were described as “significant adverse experiences” and trauma.
However, Ahmadze was convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh and sentenced to nine years in prison. Detective Inspector Sam Buchan, of Scotland Police, described him as a “predatory individual” who took advantage of the “vulnerable” teenager.
After he was sentenced, Ahmadze’s lawyers appealed against his jail term. Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh have now reduced the term by one year, with Lord Matthews and Lady Wise concluding the original sentence was excessive.
Judge Thomas Welsh KC told Ahmadze during his sentencing last December: “You were convicted by the jury on the basis that you acted in a predatory manner and took advantage of a vulnerable teenager who was unknown to you, and you raped her in shocking and violent rape on rough ground in Cooper Park. What happened to her that night must have been a horrific ordeal.”
Judge Welsh continued: “The harm which you have done is profound and long-lasting.” He said Ahmadze’s actions were “motivated by a brutal desire to take sex irrespective of the consent of the victim”.
After sentencing in December, DI Buchan said: “Rapualla Ahmadze is a predatory individual who took advantage of a vulnerable young woman for his own gratification.
“He will now face the consequences of his actions. We know this was a deeply worrying incident for many people in the local area and I hope this conviction and sentence sends a strong message that sexual violence has no place in our communities.”