Afghan asylum seeker who raped teen girl in Elgin park jailed for nine years

An Afghan asylum seeker who claimed he was an escaped prisoner of the Taliban has been jailed for raping a vulnerable teenager in a park in a town in Scotland.

Rapualla Ahmadze was caught on CCTV walking the streets of Elgin, in Moray, in the early hours of the morning before approaching his lone victim as she sat on a bench in Cooper Park and subjecting her to a shocking and violent attack.

The 21-year-old, who denied his guilt, was sentenced to nine years in prison.

‘Horrific ordeal’

Judge Thomas Welsh KC said: “You were unanimously disbelieved by the jury in relation to your defence of consent.”

“You were convicted by the jury on the basis that you acted in a predatory manner and took advantage of a vulnerable teenager, who was unknown to you, and you raped her in a shocking, violent rape on rough ground.”

The judge said: “What happened to her that night must have been a horrific ordeal.”

Rapualla Ahmadze attacked the 17-year-old in Cooper Park in Elgin, Moray, in August last year Jasper Image

He said he read a victim impact statement prepared in the case and noted the “shocking, overwhelming impact your violent, brutal abuse has had on your innocent victim”.

Mr Welsh said it was suggested by Ahmadze’s lawyer that the attack may have been affected by immaturity and the asylum seeker’s account of his own personal history.

But the judge said: “In my opinion, based on the evidence, what you did was motivated by a brutal desire to take sex irrespective of the consent of your victim.”

He said: “The criminal justice social work report suggests, and that has been echoed by your own counsel, that you will be deported from this country at the end of your sentence. That is a matter for the Home Office.”

‘He told me he was my boyfriend now’

The court heard that the teenage victim, who was struggling with mental health issues, sometimes went for a walk at night and listened to music

The victim, then aged 17, later told police that the bearded stranger stopped in front of her and spoke with a foreign accent as he asked if she had a boyfriend.

When the teenager replied that she did not he “told me that he was my boyfriend now”, she said.

He pulled her from the bench, put an arm around her waist and groped her at Cooper Park, in Elgin, on August 4 last year.

The victim said: “I kept thinking I need to get away. I tried to pull away from him three times. When I did this the man pulled me more towards him.”

The teenager was scared that she would make him angry if she continued trying to escape.

She was taken to a “tunnel” at a children’s play area and pushed to the ground, where Ahmadze molested her.

He then took her to some bushes where he forced her to the ground and raped her.

The teenager said the man ignored her pleas.

The victim said that she saw another man walking along a path in the park.

The teenager said she needed to go and raised her voice to get the attention of the passerby and went over to him, asking for help.

John Donald, 28, told the court that when the teenager approached him, her arms and hands were shaking. He said: “I felt a sense of scaredness.”

He said: “The size difference between the male and female was noticeable. The female was little and the male was bigger.”

“The female came up to me. At this point, she was physically shaking and immediately asked for help. She was crying by this time. She was really struggling to catch her breath. It was like she was hyperventilating. She told me she needed help and asked me to walk her somewhere.”

During a phone call, the victim told a friend that she had been raped and Mr Donald suggested that she go to hospital. She went to Dr Gray’s Hospital, in Elgin, and spoke to staff and police were alerted.

Ahmadze, also known as Rafiullah Ahmadzai, denied raping the teenager during an earlier trial, claiming that the sex was consensual and the victim instigated intercourse.

He said through an interpreter: “When we went to the bushes I wanted to leave, but she wanted to have sex with me and then we have sex.”

Ahmadze claimed he was out in the early hours of the morning because he was hungry and looking for a pizza restaurant.

Asylum seeker claimed he was 17 and had escaped from Taliban

During his evidence, he claimed that he was born in 2007 and was currently 18. At a police interview last year he said he did not remember his date of birth but claimed he was 17. Immigration authorities provided a date of birth in January 2004.

Defence counsel Shaun Alexander said Ahmadze was born in Afghanistan into a country ravaged by war. He said that as a young teenager he was conscripted by his uncle into the Afghan national army, but was captured by the Taliban after they took control.

Ahmadze said he was held in prison but managed to escape with several other prisoners, although he was shot in the arm.

Mr Alexander said he then made “a long and arduous journey” before arriving in the UK in 2023. The counsel said: “He arrived with nothing. He had no family, no friends, no support network.”

The defence counsel said a custodial sentence was inevitable but asked the judge to take account of the young person sentencing guidelines. He asked the judge to restrict the sentence to reflect Ahmadze’s age and circumstances. He said: “He faces deportation to a country where his life will be at risk.”

The court heard that at one stage last year, Ahmadze was placed with a couple who were part of a Moray Council assisted living scheme, which aimed to provide 16 and 17-year-olds with a place to stay after being in foster care. It was also open to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Ahmadze was convicted of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on two occasions at their home in Dufftown between March 1 and April 30 last year by shouting, banging on a bedroom door, demanding money and pushing the door open and by acting aggressively and demanding a new shower.

Ahmadze was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely. The judge made a non harassment order banning him from contacting or attempting to contact the victim. The jail sentence was backdated to August 12 last year when he was remanded in custody.

Following the sentencing, Police Scotland said they are committed to making their service “trauma informed”.

Detective Inspector Sam Buchan said: “Rapualla Ahmadze is a predatory individual who took advantage of a vulnerable young woman for his own gratification.

“He will now face the consequences of his actions. We know this was a deeply worrying incident for many people in the local area and I hope this conviction and sentence sends a strong message that sexual violence has no place in our communities.

“Police Scotland is committed to our role to help create a society where women and girls live free from violence, abuse, exploitation and harassment. This is also reflected in our ongoing commitment to actively pursue perpetrators of violence against women and girls and ensure they are brought to justice.

“We will continue to work with our valued partners across criminal justice, and support services, to improve the opportunities and support for women to report.”