(Corrects day in paragraph 1 from Wednesday to Tuesday)
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – An Afghan was on Tuesday found guilty in an English court of raping a 12-year-old girl, a case that sparked local protests and a political row when his status as an asylum seeker was not initially disclosed by police.
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was convicted of two counts of raping a child under 13 in Nuneaton, central England, last July after a trial at Warwick Crown Court.
He had previously pleaded guilty to a further count of rape and was also found guilty of abducting a child, two counts of sexual assault and making indecent images of a child.
His co-defendant Mohammad Kabir, 24, was found not guilty of attempting to take a child, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence 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.
Pro-migrant groups, however, have said far-right groups and opportunistic politicians are deliberately seeking to exploit and inflame tensions for their own ends.
Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft told jurors at the start of Mulakhil’s trial last month that Mulakhil had led the victim to a “secluded cul-de-sac … where he raped her, sexually assaulted her and took indecent images of her”.
Mulakhil will be sentenced at a later date.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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