An Afghan man reportedly inquired about a 12-year-old girl’s age before allegedly assaulting her, according to court proceedings.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, faces charges of rape and taking inappropriate photographs of the young girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, while allegedly laughing during the incident.
The court heard that Mulakhil, accompanied by fellow Afghan national Mohammad Kabir, 24, noticed the girl at a playground and decided to approach her last July.
Kabir allegedly attempted to strangle the girl before Mulakhil assaulted her multiple times, capturing images of the ordeal, as presented to the jury.
CCTV evidence shown at Warwick Crown Court depicted Mulakhil engaging the girl in conversation on the street, asking her, “How old are you? Twenty? Nineteen? Sixteen?”
When the girl responded that she was “nineteen,” Mulakhil expressed skepticism, asking, “Nineteen? Really?”
In another clip, he is seen with the schoolgirl going into the cul-de-sac where she was allegedly raped.
Other footage shows the pair leaving the park less than 30 seconds after the girl and two men walking along a residential street in the town.
CCTV footage played to jurors shows Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, asking the 12-year-old girl ‘how old are you?’
Other footage shows Mulakhil and his co-defendant, fellow Afghan Mohammad Kabir, 24, leaving the park together
Mulakhil was again seen on CCTV with the girl after the alleged attack inside a corner shop buying two cans of Red Bull
A video found on Mulakhil’s phone and played in court showed him with his arm around her neck and grinning into the camera.
He was again seen on CCTV with the girl after the alleged attack inside a corner shop buying two cans of Red Bull.
The court heard she was later found ‘petrified’ in the street by two adults, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who raised the alarm.
One of the witnesses told jurors that the girl was ‘very scared’.
They said: ‘She had a love-bite on her neck. She said “Something happened to me”.
‘I asked her if she was hurt. She said “He raped me”.
‘She said her back was hurting because they “ragged” her around. She was very scared.
‘She said “he’s coming for me” and knew he was still in the park. She was very worried that he was going to come across the road and try and get her.’
The witness added that the girl said that Mulakhil ‘wanted her to get in a BMW’ and ‘take her to Birmingham and London and rape her again’.
‘She told me she thought the men were safe because they were adults,’ they added.
‘She said one of them had strangled her.’
The other witness told jurors: ‘She was very frantic, she was looking over her shoulder.
‘She said, “Something happened to me”. She kept looking over to the park, saying, “Where has he gone?”
‘She was petrified, frantic, she was crying. It scared me.’
Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft told jurors yesterday how both men ‘targeted’ the youngster.
CCTV images of Mulakhil and Kabir in a supermarket a day after the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Mulakhil enters a corner shop with the girl after the alleged attack to buy two cans of Red Bull
He said Kabir first approached her, put his hands around her neck and attempted to get her to come with him.
In a videotaped statement, the girl said: ‘I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe.’
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.
‘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.
‘I was saying get off me but he didn’t say anything, he just carried on,’ she said.
‘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?’
Mulakhil’s DNA was found on the girl’s neck and inside her shorts, the court heard.
Mr Oscroft said indecent images were found on his phone and non-indecent videos of him and the girl.
Mulakhil, of no fixed abode, denied abducting her and said the sexual activity that did take place was consensual and ‘initiated’ by the girl.
Jurors were told he has admitted a charge of oral rape of the 12-year-old.
Mulakhil denies two other counts of rape, abducting a child, two counts of sexual assault and taking indecent photographs of a child.
Kabir, also of no fixed abode, denies attempting to take a child and intentional strangulation.
He also denies committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.
The court has heard Kabir is alleged to have strangled the girl, who had been playing in a park, at about 6pm.
She was then seen talking to Mulakhil at about 8pm, when she is said to have claimed to be aged 19.
Opening the Crown’s case yesterday, prosecutor Mr Oscroft told a jury of seven men and five women: ‘This case concerns two men who both targeted a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.
‘Mohammad Kabir did so by trying to get her to come with him – which is the attempted abduction of a child – and also grabbing her by the neck, strangling her.
‘The prosecution suggests that Mohammad Kabir, when he tried to take her away, can only have had some sexual purpose.
‘While she didn’t go with Mr Kabir, the other person there, Ahmad Mulakhil, remained in the area for the next few hours, and later met her.
‘He talked to her and led her away to a secluded cul-de-sac, Cheverel Place, where he raped her, sexually assaulted her and took indecent images of her.’
The trial continues.
