Asylum seeker jailed for nine years after grooming and raping 13-year-old girl in Nottingham
Abdul Khan, of HMP Nottingham, is already serving a 23-month sentence for sexual communication with a different child in the Derbyshire area.
An asylum seeker who posed as a teenager on social media before grooming and raping a 13-year-old girl has been jailed for nine and a half years.
Nottingham Crown Court was told Abdul Khan, who is believed to be 28, arrived in the UK in a back of a lorry in 2015, and faces automatic deportation to Afghanistan after he has served two thirds of his sentence.
Khan, of HMP Nottingham, is already serving a 23-month sentence for sexual communication with a different child in the Derbyshire area.
Jurors convicted him last week of two counts of rape, one count of sexual activity with a child, sexual communication with a child, meeting a child following grooming and perverting the course of justice.
A four-day trial was told Khan chatted with his victim on Snapchat, claiming to be a 14-year-old boy, before meeting her at a nature reserve in the Clifton area of Nottingham.
After activity which jurors found had been consensual, Khan twice raped the girl in May last year.
His victim was in court on Monday as prosecutor Dawn Pritchard read a victim personal statement telling Judge Mark Watson that the complainant “feels numb when she thinks back to how she felt at the time”. Summarising the statement, Miss Pritchard added: “She felt scared of the world after it happened and felt overwhelmed.
“When she has flashbacks she sees his face and what happened.
“She feels like she can’t trust anyone.”
Defence barrister Andrew Wesley said he was unable to offer any personal mitigation on behalf of Khan as he still disputes the identity and age under which he was prosecuted.
Passing sentence, Judge Watson told Khan: “You deliberately concealed your true identity.
“She (the 13-year-old) thought she was communicating with a child of her own age.
“It was a lie you have persisted with throughout these proceedings.”
When the victim met Khan in person it was clear to her that he was older than 14 and he sought to appease her by claiming to be 16, the court heard.
The judge, describing the defendant’s claims over his age and identity as “nonsensical” and bound to fail, added: “The police were called by her father, he learning from her that she had been raped.
“She has on any view been profoundly affected, as her parents must also have been.
“Your sentence will mean automatic deportation.”
Khan, who covered his face with his hands as he walked out of the dock, was also ordered to register as a sex offender indefinitely.