Girl, 12, ‘raped by man hours after another sex attacker tried to drag her away by the neck’

A vulnerable 12-year-old girl was raped in a quiet cul-de-sac – hours after another man tried to drag her away by the neck intending to sexually assault her, a court has heard.

Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, is said to have filmed himself attacking the girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, last July.

He is on trial at Warwick Crown Court with Mohammad Kabir, 24, who is accused of trying to abduct the girl earlier that same evening.

Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft told jurors: ‘This case concerns two men who both targeted a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton in the early evening of Tuesday, July 22, 2025, a light summer evening.

‘Mohammad Kabir did so by trying to get her to come with him – which is the attempted abduction of a child – and also grabbing her by the neck, strangling her.

‘This is a legal definition, it doesn’t necessarily mean he choked her.

‘Mohammad Kabir was with Ahmad Mulakhil at the time. It appears they were friends.

‘The prosecution suggests that Mohammad Kabir, when he tried to take her away, can only have had some sexual purpose. What alternative could there have been?’

Mr Oscroft added: ‘While she didn’t go with Mr Kabir, the other person there, Ahmad Mulakhil, remained in the area for the next few hours, and later met her.

‘He talked to her and led her away to a secluded cul-de-sac, Cheverel Place, where he raped her, sexually assaulted her and took indecent images of her.

‘He is charged with child abduction, vaginal and anal rape, counts of sexual assault and making indecent images of a child.’

Jurors were told Mulakhil has pleaded guilty to a charge of oral rape of the 12-year-old.

Mulakhil, of no fixed abode, denies child abduction, two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and taking indecent photographs of a child.

Kabir, also of no fixed address, denies intentional strangulation, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence and attempting to take a child.

The court heard Kabir is alleged to have strangled the girl, who had been playing in a park, at about 6pm.

She was then seen talking to Mulakhil at about 8pm, when she is said to have claimed to be aged 19.

Mr Oscroft said the girl’s claim was ‘such an obvious lie’ that it was clear from Mulakhil’s reaction that he did not believe her.

Mulakhil was also in contact with Kabir, Mr Oscroft said, and their discussions appeared to be about their alleged victim.

Describing the complainant as very young and vulnerable, the prosecutor alleged that she was ‘forced’ to engage in sexual acts and made disclosures to adults she knew on the same night, claiming she had also been ‘smacked and pulled’.

Mulakhil’s phone was seized after his arrest, jurors were told, and indecent images and images of the two defendants together were found, confirming they were well known to each other.

Investigators also found Mulakhil’s DNA on the girl’s neck and on the inside of her clothing, Mr Oscroft said.

When the defendants were interviewed, Kabir provided a prepared statement denying all of the allegations.

Mr Oscroft added: ‘When confronted with CCTV, phone evidence and images placing him with Mulakhil on multiple days, including the day after the alleged offences, Kabir initially denied but ultimately accepted that he appeared in some of the footage, while still declining to give any explanation or identify anyone shown.’

In interview Mulakhil accepted that he had met the girl twice on July 22, near a park and later alone near a residential street, and claimed he had only engaged in consensual oral sex.

As both defendants were assisted by interpreters in the dock, Mr Oscroft said of the younger defendant: ‘He repeatedly insisted that the girl followed him voluntarily, denying that he ever forced, threatened, tricked or restrained her.

‘He said he did not ask her age, claiming his friend told him she was 19 and that he believed she looked in her twenties.

‘He described communication difficulties due to language barriers and said most interaction occurred through body language. He maintained that he never abducted her and that she came with him of her own choice.’

The trial continues.

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