A 12-year-old girl who alleged she was strangled by one man and raped by another has told a court that one of them left her unable to breathe. Prosecutors allege that the teen was “targeted” by Afghan national Ahmed Mulkhil and his friend Mohammad Kabir, with one defendant attempting to strangle her and the other raping her.
A trial at Warwick Crown Court heard Mulkhill is accused of raping, sexually assaulting and taking indecent mobile phone photographs of a girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Jurors learnt that he has admitted to one count of verbal rape against the girl. A video interview conducted with the girl before the trial was shown to jurors on Thursday, in which she described an incident in which Kabir, 24, allegedly grabbed her by the neck.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons,
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alleges the two defendants approached her in a park after she played on the swings in July last year.
In her interview, she said, “They kept watching. They were both foreigners – they had a translation (app) on their phones. I spoke there so he could understand it.”
Asked how the alleged strangulation made her feel, the complainant said, “Like I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe. After he strangled me, I ran away.”
At one point she was sitting and a man said he liked her and was “acting weird,” the girl said.
The girl said she had asked her attacker to stop during the alleged sexual assaults.
When police asked the girl what he was saying, she replied, “Nothing. He was just laughing. I was telling him to stop touching me. He didn’t say anything; he just kept walking.”
In separate video evidence during cross-examination recorded before the trial, the girl denied that she had told one of the men that she was 19 years old.
Opening the Crown’s case before presenting the girl’s testimony to the jury, prosecutor Daniel Oscroft told the jury of seven men and five women, “This case concerns two men who targeted a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.
“Mohammed Kabir tried to bring her along with him – which is an attempted kidnapping of a child – and strangled her by holding her by the neck. This is a legal definition; it does not mean that he strangled her.
“Mohammed Kabir was with Ahmed Mulkhil at the time. It appears that they were friends. The prosecution suggests that when Mohammed Kabir tried to take her away, he may have had only some sexual motive. What could have been the alternative?”
Mr Oscroft said, “Although she did not accompany Mr Kabir, the other man present, Ahmed Mulkhill, remained in the area for the next few hours and later met him.
“He talked her down and drove her to a secluded area, Chevrell Place, where he raped , sexually assaulted her and took indecent photographs of her.”
Mulkhil, 23, of no fixed abode, denies child abduction, two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of taking indecent photographs of a child.
Kabir, of no fixed address, denies deliberate strangulation, committing a crime with intent to commit a sexual offence, and attempting to take a child away.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
