Two teenage Afghan asylum seekers jailed for raping girl in UK

Two 17-year-old Afghan asylum seekers have been jailed for abducting and raping a 15-year-old girl in the UK.

Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal were sentenced at Warwick crown court and told they must remain on the sex-offender register. They could also be deported after serving their sentences.

During the course of the hearing, the court was informed that the teenagers lured the girl to a hidden “den-type” area in Leamington Spa last May, where they pushed her to the ground and attacked her.

Judge De Bertodano said they had taken away the girl’s childhood, telling them: “What you did that night changed her life for ever.”

A statement from the girl, read to the court, said the incident had altered her sense of safety. She said the day she was attacked had changed her as a person and left her feeling unsafe whenever she went outside, to the point she often avoided leaving home. Her education, she added, had suffered as a result.

Her mother’s statement described a dramatic decline in her daughter’s wellbeing, saying the teenager had gone from being outgoing to battling severe anxiety that sometimes made her physically ill. She said the impact had touched “every aspect” of family life.

Both defendants had previously admitted the offence.

Jahanzeb, who has already been served with deportation papers because of his age at the time of his plea, was given 10 years and eight months in youth detention.

Niazal received nine years and 10 months. As Niazal was 16 when he pleaded guilty, the judge asked the Home Office to consider whether he should also be removed from the country.

They will begin their terms in a young offender institution and later be transferred to an adult prison. Each was also placed on the sex-offender register for life and given an indefinite restraining order.