A FORMER interpreter for the British Army in Afghanistan has been jailed after he raped a 14-year-old Leamington girl.
Asadullah Najibullah, whose policeman father had been murdered in front of him by the Taliban, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to raping the girl in 2016.
The 28-year-old, of Newbold Gardens, Leamington, at the time, who also admitted supplying her with cannabis, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Prosecutor Matthew Brook said on Bonfire Night in 2016, the 14-year-old girl and two friends went to Najibullah’s flat where he gave them vodka.
He also gave cannabis to her and one of the other girls who became very sick as a result of the combination of drink and smoking the drug.
Najibullah then called for a taxi to pick up the 14-year-old’s friends, and when alone he raped her.
The girl initially kept the attack secret but finally told her mother two weeks later, and she called police who arrested Najibullah.
He denied knowing the girl or having any sexual contact with her – but pleaded guilty after DNA evidence was found on a pair of his pyjama bottoms she had put on after the rape.
Graeme Simpson, defending, said Najibullah had ‘put his life and safety at risk’ by assisting the British forces in Afghanistan, and the Ministry of Defence believed he would be in danger if he remained there.
So in 2015 he was brought to this country where he was provided with assistance and accommodation for six months and given indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
When that six-month period ended, he found himself homeless, and he moved to Leamington and he was provided with somewhere to stay.
Mr Simpson said Najibullah had been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of what he witnessed in Afghanistan, including the murder of his police officer father by the Taliban in front of him.
Jailing Najibullah, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “You pleaded guilty to two offences, including the rape of a young and vulnerable girl, and the supply to her of cannabis in order to facilitate that rape.
“She was young and vulnerable, and you were significantly older, 26 at the time, and had a life experience well beyond her conception.
“I have to bear in mind your previous exemplary conduct.
“You served with the British Army, and with the United States Army, in Afghanistan, and over the course of some three years you provided continued support as an interpreter.
“You have been witness to a number of events which have had a continuing effect on you, and you were only in this country because the MoD believed there was a risk to your life if you remained in Afghanistan.
“It is a sad feature of this case that you have chosen to repay that support by behaving in the way you did.”
