A UK court on Tuesday convicted an Afghan man of raping a 12-year-old girl, a case that sparked protests and political controversy after police initially denied him asylum seeker status.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was found guilty of two counts of raping a girl under 13 in Nuneaton, central England, last July following a trial at Warwick Crown Court.
He had previously pleaded guilty to another charge of rape and was also found guilty of kidnapping a child, two counts of sexual assault and making indecent images of a child.
His co-accused, Mohammad Kabir, 24, was found not guilty of attempting to kidnap a child, committing a crime with intent to commit a sexual crime and intentional strangulation in connection with an earlier encounter with the victim on the same day.
Anti-immigration activists have seized on other criminal cases involving asylum seekers, predominantly young men and particularly those housed in hotels, to argue that they are a danger to nearby communities.
However, pro-immigrant groups have said far-right groups and opportunistic politicians are deliberately seeking to exploit and exacerbate tensions for their own purposes.
Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft told jurors at the start of Mulakhil's trial last month that Mulakhil had taken the victim to an “isolated cul-de-sac… where he raped her, sexually assaulted her and took indecent images of her”.
Mulakhil will be sentenced at a later date.
