Two teenage asylum seekers were jailed yesterday for raping a schoolgirl who filmed herself being snatched in footage so ‘horrific’, one of their lawyers feared it would cause riots if it went public.
Afghans Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both 17, had arrived only months earlier in small boats before assaulting the 15-year-old in a park on May 10.
Phone footage captured by the victim was so appalling that even one of the boy’s own barristers warned it would lead to ‘disorder’ if ‘the general public were exposed’ to it.
In the distressing three-minute clip, the girl could be heard crying ‘you’re going to rape me’ as she was dragged away from where she had been drinking with friends in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
The footage, played at Warwick Crown Court yesterday, also showed her weeping, screaming ‘help’ and begging not to be taken to the park.
She was forced to perform a sex act on the boys in a secluded area, before she escaped and filmed more clips describing her ordeal. The girl was eventually found by a passer-by who took her to a nearby police station, where officers were able to obtain vital forensic evidence.
In an impact statement, the girl said: ‘The day I was raped changed me as a person. I’m no longer a happy, carefree teenager. This was my first sexual experience.’
‘When I go out, I no longer feel safe, so much so that I have started to avoid it all together. This has also impacted my education and school life at the worst possible time as I’m taking my GCSEs.
‘I hate that I’m now looked at as a victim, even though that is exactly what I am.’
Jailing Jahanzeb for ten years and eight months, and Niazal for nine years and ten months, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano also accepted a legal challenge mounted by the Daily Mail which means they can be named for the first time. She said they had ‘betrayed the interests’ of genuine refugees and ‘should feel a deep and lasting sense of shame’.
The judge added: ‘No child should have to suffer the ordeal [the victim] has suffered. The fact is, you two have robbed her of her childhood.’
Even Niazal’s own lawyer Joshua Radcliffe called the phone footage ‘genuinely horrific,’ adding: ‘I have no doubt that if the general public were exposed to that, we would have disorder on our hands.’
Robert Holt, defending Jahanzeb, went further by asking the judge to stop the press from even being able to say the boys were Afghan asylum seekers.
The judge added: ‘I accept that you come from a place which has significant cultural differences from the UK, however I don’t accept that either of you does not understand the concept of consent.
‘This is a case where it was absolutely clear to both of you that you were talking a child away from her friends in the face of her vigorous protests to somewhere you couldn’t be observed, in order to commit this offence.
‘I’m satisfied you both knew perfectly well that what you were doing was criminal and wrong.
‘You have betrayed the interests of those, like you, who come here fleeing harm and seeking safety and for that you should feel a deep and lasting sense of shame.’
The asylum seekers were living in taxpayer-funded houses at the time of the attack, having arrived in the UK by small boats. The boys admitted the attack in October. Jahanze faces deportation, but Niazal does not, as he pleaded guilty a day before turning 17 – too young to qualify.
His barrister made the extraordinary suggestion this would allow the younger of the two rapists to ‘make a life for himself in this country’ when he is eventually released.
The judge later confirmed during her sentencing that she would recommend that the Home Secretary considers deporting both Jahanzeb and Niazal.
The asylum seekers were living in taxpayer-funded houses at the time of the attack, having arrived in the UK by small boats as unaccompanied children.
It is understood Jahanzeb only succeeded in making the crossing in January, after three previous failed attempts which saw French police repeatedly cutting up his dinghy.
