An Afghan asylum seeker accused of raping two 14-year-old girls has told a court he blamed “Satan” for him “losing control” after drinking alcohol.
Prosecutors allege that 29-year-old Sultani Bakatash gave the two teenagers vodka before “seizing the opportunity to rape and abuse them” at his flat in Bolton in December last year.
He has previously entered not guilty pleas to two charges of rape, two counts of assault by penetration, and one count of sexual assault.
Mr Bakatash told the court he arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in 2022 to claim asylum, after spending the previous seven years working with the British military.
Giving evidence at Bolton Crown Court yesterday through an interpreter, he said he felt “uncontrollably sleepy” around the time of the alleged incident and had briefly fallen asleep.
He told jurors the two girls were making a lot of noise and that he asked them to leave his flat.
His barrister, Umar Shahzad, asked: “Did anybody do anything to you?” Mr Bakatash responded: “I can’t say.”
Mr Shahzad then pressed him on whether he could say, with any certainty, what the girls had been doing at the time.
Sultani Bakatash, 29, is said to have plied both teenagers with vodka before ‘seizing the opportunity to rape and abuse them’ in December last year at his Bolton flat. A court sketch of Bakatash can be seen here
The defendant responded: ‘I can’t say what they were doing, I was not in myself.’
Mr Bakatash explained he had left Afghanistan due to the Taliban, adding: ‘For reasons of their presence, I couldn’t live there so I came here. Because I was working in the British military in different provinces in Afghanistan.’
The defendant said he stayed in a hotel with his mother, brothers and sisters for a year-and-a-half before moving to Bolton around two years ago.
He said he was studying English and that his understanding of the language was ‘OK’, though he struggled having conversations.
Three months before the events of December 6, 2025, he said he met one of the girls outside a McDonalds and was eating after going to the gym when the girl, and another person, asked him to buy food for them.
‘I said to her I didn’t have any more cash or any money on my card but maybe some other time I could buy them food,’ Mr Bakatash said. ‘She told me she was 18,’ he added.
He told the court he saw the same girl around two weeks later at Asda. He said: ‘She saw me, she came close to me, we greeted each other and I said I needed help regarding sugar. She helped me find sugar because on previous occasions I had mistakenly taken flour instead of sugar.’
Mr Bakatash said the girl added him on Snapchat and they messaged occasionally. He said she would screenshot his ‘stories’ of his time in the military or at the gym.
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Giving evidence yesterday with the assistance of an interpreter, he told Bolton Crown Court (pictured) he felt ‘uncontrollably sleepy’ at the time of the alleged attack, and briefly dozed off
Speaking about the day of the alleged incident, he said he woke up at 2pm before his mother and sisters went to his flat around half an hour later. He said the girl began to message him and call him on Snapchat.
‘When I saw her messages, she said the promise I made to buy her food, to take her to McDonald’s to buy her food,’ he said. Mr Bakatash said he video called the girl before meeting her and the second alleged victim.
Asked why he met the girl, Mr Bakatash said: ‘I made a promise with her about food, and she helped me.’ He said he shared his location so they could meet.
He described the two girls as ‘very happy and laughing’ when he met them, before he went to buy food. He reiterated he believed the girls were 18 or 19.
Mr Bakatash said he bought the girls three bottles of vodka. He said he did not drink, smoke or take drugs as he is Muslim and that he bought himself a Monster energy drink. One of the girls took his phone and ordered an Uber taxi to his flat, he said.
During the eight-minute journey, he said they were ‘giggling, taking selfies and talking amongst themselves’.
‘What was your intention?,’ Mr Shahzad asked. ‘They said to me they want to see my flat, finish their drinks and they would go to town,’ Mr Bakatash said.
He said the girls were drinking diet Coke and vodka before he decided to take a swig from the bottle.
‘I think Satan took over me and I had a drink from the bottle,’ Mr Bakatash added.
‘It was a very bad taste. It made a sour feeling in my throat.’
‘Why did you drink directly from the bottle?,’ the barrister asked. ‘It looked like water, I thought it might taste good,’ he said.
He said the girls laughed at his reaction before making him a drink of Diet Coke and vodka. The three continued drinking, emptying one bottle completely, and the majority of a second, he said.
They then moved to the living room to listen to music on his TV, the defendant told jurors. He described feeling ‘sick’; that his ‘head was swinging’; and that he became ‘dizzy’.
Mr Bakatash said the girls then began ‘sexy dancing’ and ‘kissing each other’ before he began to dance as well.
He said he felt ‘very bad’ and like he was ‘zooming’ in and out. He said he then became ‘uncontrollably sleepy’.
Mr Bakatash, of Georgina Court, Bolton, denies all the charges he faces.
