Afghan men jailed for rape of teenager after being caught fleeing UK by French police

ByCheryl DennisReporting fromBristol Crown Court and Leigh BoobyerBristol

Updated 7 minutes ago

Three Afghan nationals who raped a teenager, before being stopped by French police as they fled the UK in the back of a lorry, have been jailed.

Mehrab Safi, 21, Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheli, both 19, were found guilty on 26 June of multiple offences against the girl at a house in St Werburghs, Bristol, last year.

Safi first met the 17-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, while she was Christmas shopping, and groomed her over Snapchat before paying for a taxi to bring her to Bristol.

Safi was jailed for 15 years at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday, while Habibkheli and Ahmadzai were both sentenced to nine years in a youth detention centre.

Sentencing the three men, Judge Michael Cullum said being trafficked and raped by the men will have caused "unimaginable" trauma to the teenager.

Warning: This story contains distressing details.

A 17-year-old boy - who is an Afghan national but cannot be named for legal reasons - was also convicted of rape, but he did not try to escape the UK. He was sentenced to two years and seven months in a youth detention centre.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the girl said the attack had left her "traumatised" and fearful of leaving the house.

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, information and support can be found at the BBC's Action Line.

She added that she is a "different person" to who she was a year ago.

"I had a lot more friends, I would go out a lot more, I was happier. Now, I've stopped going out, I don't even leave the house in general.

"If I ever leave the house, it is only with my best friend or mum. I would not be able to go out by myself, even the thought of that makes me panic.

"Generally my brain keeps blocking out the trauma that happened to me, but when I am feeling low emotionally it all comes back and makes me feel even worse.

"Sometimes I would dream about what happened, which I was not expecting – and I do not like those dreams at all," she said.

Avon and Somerset Police said the girl, who was from Somerset, was plied with alcohol when she arrived at Safi's home. She was then sexually assaulted and raped over a number of hours by the three men and teenager in November last year.

Officers attended the property and found the girl after her mother reported her missing.

Det Sgt Jo Babbage said the victim had begun communicating with Safi five days before the attacks "via mobile, predominantly Snapchat".

She said: "It's clear that that's where the grooming and the contact process was started that led up to her being brought into Bristol by taxi which was arranged [by Safi]."

Babbage said the girl has been left "very traumatised" by the attacks, but has been "very brave" throughout the investigation.

The victim came to Bristol for the first time on 25 November 2025 with a friend on a Christmas shopping trip.

During the trip, the girl met Safi and they exchanged numbers and Snapchat contacts.

Safi later used the platform to persuade her to send nude photos.

He then arranged for a taxi to take her from her home to his house in St Werburghs in the early hours of 30 November where he and the three others carried out the attacks.

Babbage said: "Just hearing that, reading it, this Christmas shopping trip that ended like that, as a parent, makes you feel terrified for your children to go out."

The 17-year-old boy was arrested at the scene, but the three men fled from officers and travelled to Birmingham and London before they left the country in a lorry.

They were discovered by French police in Calais and returned to the UK where they were immediately arrested on suspicion of rape.

Babbage said: "They got into the back of a lorry... and they were able to leave the country without documents and it was just fortuitous that our friends in France located them and were able to return them straight away."

Mobile phone footage from Safi's phone showed the men laughing and gesticulating in the back of the lorry, which the prosecution said during the trial had suggested they thought they had "got away with it".

'Unimaginable' trauma

Sentencing the men and teenager, Judge Cullum said the victim would have looked "vulnerable from the very beginning".

"I have no doubt that was her attraction to you, Safi. After an intense exchange of texts you obtained nude photos of her.

"Reading of the exchanges is uncomfortable and starts to suggest an imbalance of power between you [Safi] and the victim.

"Having been trafficked she was raped five times, and cumulative trauma will undoubtedly live with her forever and is unimaginable," he said.

During sentencing, the judge acknowledged the traumatic experiences all four had endured in Afghanistan. The judge also noted that one of them had lost a parent at the hands of the Taliban.

However, he said that this was no excuse.

All four were also sentenced to be put on the sex offender's register indefinitely, and received a sexual harm prevention order which stops them communication with children.