Ahmad Mulakhil (Image: Warwickshire Police)
In the once quiet residential cul-de-sacs of a middle England town the simmering worries over migrant accommodation erupted last summer after a 12-year-old schoolgirl was abducted and raped by a predatory asylum seeker. Afghan Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, arrived illegally in the UK by small boat just four months before he subjected his young victim to a harrowing ordeal that has left her life “in pieces”.
The sex beast’s targeting pursuit was captured in chilling doorbell camera footage after he spotted her playing on swings in a park and approached her, telling her “you’re very small,” before demanded her phone number. Despite the girl attempting to rebuff his advances, even telling the migrant, “I don’t like you. I’m young. I’m a kid”, Mulakhil forced her to a secluded, grassy area beside a row of garages. During an ordeal that CCTV evidence showed lasted around 80 minutes, he threatened to kill her family as he repeatedly raped her.
Undated handout CCTV still issued by Warwickshire Police of Afghan national Ahmad Mulakhil in a shop (Image: PA)
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In a distressing statement to police, the young victim recounted the horror of the horrific assault, which has left her life shattered and sparked widespread protests across the Warwickshire town of Nuneaton.
She said: “He was trying to strip my clothes off. He said nothing. He was laughing. I was saying get off me but he didn’t say anything, he just carried on.”
The depraved paedophile, who was today jailed for15 years, even took indecent photographs of the child during his attack.
Hundreds of people subsequently mounted an anti-immigration protest march that descended on Nuneaton Town Hall with people waving flags and chanting for tougher action to “stop the boats”.
Protesters outside Warwick Crown Court in Leamington Spa where asylum seeker Ahmad Mulakhil, who abd (Image: PA)
The Escape and the Aspen Card Breakthrough
The girl’s lengthy nightmare only ended when Mulakhil took her to a nearby convenience store to buy a can of Red Bull. Whilst he was distracted paying at the till his victim seized her opportunity to “run for her life”. She was subsequently found alone and distraught in another nearby park by an adult she knew, who immediately contacted the police.
The purchase of the high-caffeine energy drink proved to be Mulakhil’s undoing. Police reviewing CCTV footage of the transaction were able to trace the payment back to a Home Office Aspen card issued in his name.
These government-issued payment cards are provided to asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their status, allowing them to purchase basic necessities. They are typically topped up with £9.95 a week for those housed in fully catered hotels or £49.18 a week for individuals moved to self-catered accommodation.
Video grab of protesters in Nuneaton. Anti-migrant protestors gathered in Nuneaton chanting « This is (Image: David Bass Photography / SWNS)
Using this electronic paper trail, officers tracked Mulakhil to his sparsely furnished bedroom in a Nuneaton house of multiple occupation, arresting him four days after the attack.
Warwickshire Police then sparked fury by refusing to confirm the ethnicity or immigration status of the man they had arrested – leading of claims of a cover-up that sparked further protest in the town.
During a ten-day trial at Warwick Crown Court, Mulakhil, assisted by a Farsi interpreter, attempted to claim that the sexual activity had been consensual and even claimed it had been initiated by the child. He admitted meeting her but told jurors he believed she was 19, a claim prosecutor Daniel Oscroft dismissed as an “obvious lie,” noting it would be “obvious to anyone that she was a very young, vulnerable child.”
A screen grab taken from CCTV dated 23/07/25 issued by Warwickshire Police of Ahmad Mulakhil and Moh (Image: PA)
Faced with damning evidence – including his DNA found on the girl’s neck and inside her shorts, as well as an indecent image discovered on his phone – Mulakhil’s pathetic defence crumbled.
Having already pleaded guilty to one count of oral rape before the trial, it took jurors seven hours and 39 minutes to convict him of an additional count of rape, child abduction, two counts of sexual assault, and taking an indecent video.
His co-defendant, Mohammad Kabir, an Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on Christmas Day 2024, was acquitted of all charges, including intentional strangulation and attempted child abduction, and was discharged.
Detective Chief Inspector Collette O’Keefe urged the public to remember the true focus of the tragedy. She said: “Regardless of the ethnicity or nationality of the defendant, we should really remember that the victim has been raped… a 12-year-old victim is at the heart of this investigation.”
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