Asylum seeker who raped teen in early morning Cooper Park attack in Elgin has jail term cut

An Afghani asylum seeker who attacked and raped a lone teenager in a park in Moray in the early hours of the morning has had his jail sentence cut.

Rapualla Ahmadze was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment after a trial judge told him he subjected the victim to “a horrific ordeal”.

Ahmadze, 22, had denied raping the 17-year-old girl at Cooper Park, Elgin, during his earlier trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, claiming that sex was consensual, but was found guilty of the crime.

The sentencing judge, Thomas Welsh KC, told him: “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 and violent rape,” he said.

But lawyers acting for Ahmadze appealed against the jail term imposed on him and judges at the court of criminal appeal in Edinburgh quashed the prison sentence passed on him and substituted a reduced jail term of eight years.

Lord Matthews, who heard the appeal with Lady Wise, said that they considered the nine years originally imposed on him were excessive.

He said it was difficult to reconcile the sentence imposed on Ahmadze with other recent authorities in rape cases.

The teenager was raped in Cooper Park, Elgin Google Maps

Lord Matthews said the victim was “clearly vulnerable” and the offence involved the targeting of a lone, young person in the early hours of the morning in a secluded area, when they were defenceless.

During the assault, the victim was manhandled to bushes, pushed to the ground and raped. She was then subjected to a second oral rape.

The distressed teenager managed to get to a path where she met a man who was walking through the park. She called a female friend and explained she had been raped before making her way to Dr Gray’s Hospital, in Elgin.

Lord Matthews said the victim suffered flashbacks and nightmares and their life was completely changed in the wake of the attack. The victim suffered physical injury in the sex assault and had to leave their studies.

North East & Tayside

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

Rapualla Ahmadze was caught on CCTV walking the streets of Elgin in the early hours before attacking the vulnerable girl.

Lord Matthews said a background report prepared on the asylum seeker ahead of sentencing assessed him as posing a high risk of re-offending. He said: “It was said he had no remorse and showed no insight or sympathy for his victim.”

The appeal judges were told Ahmadze has no family in the UK and no contact with his family in Afghanistan. He requires the services of an interpreter and may face deportation at the end of his sentence.

It was said that he suffered significant adverse childhood experiences, and while serving in the Afghan army, he was captured by the Taliban, who shot him and killed a relative.

Defence counsel James McCrone argued that the original sentence imposed on Ahmadze was “excessive” in the circumstances of the case and should be quashed.