Two Afghan teenagers jailed for raping girl in England

LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Two teenage Afghan asylum seekers, who had both arrived in Britain alone in the last year, were given long detention sentences on Monday for raping a 15-year-old girl in central England. 

The boys, Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both aged 17, carried out the attack in a park in Leamington Spa in May after taking the girl, who was very drunk at the time, away from her friends, prosecutors told Warwick Crown Court.

The court was played footage that the highly distressed girl had managed to capture during the attack, in which she could be heard sobbing loudly and screaming: "Please help me ... let me go ... I want to go home."

"The day I was raped changed me as a person," the girl, who said the incident was her first sexual experience, said in a victim statement.

MAJOR POLITICAL ISSUE

Crimes, particularly sexual offences, committed by asylum seekers have become a major political issue in Britain, especially as the government is seeking a solution to stop thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from across the Channel.

Last month, an Afghan national pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, in central England, while an Ethiopian man was jailed in September after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman in Epping, north of London.

Both cases sparked large-scale protests, some of which turned violent, and prompted demonstrations across the country at hotels housing asylum seekers. Immigration concerns have also helped to propel the populist Reform UK party to leads in opinion polls.

In an acknowledgment of the public concern, the judge Sylvia de Bertodano ordered that the two teenagers, who pleaded guilty in October, could be named despite being only 17, saying it was in the public interest to do so.

Jahanzeb, who turns 18 at the start of next year, was given detention of 10 years and eight months, while Niazal was sentenced to nine years and 10 months in detention. 

Jahanzeb's lawyer Robert Holt said his client had travelled through Europe alone to get to Britain in January, succeeding on his fourth attempt to cross the Channel on a small boat. He faces automatic deportation after his sentence is completed.  

Joshua Radcliffe, the lawyer for Niazal, said he had come alone to Britain last November to escape the Taliban, who had murdered his father, formerly in the Afghan army. He is waiting for a decision on his asylum claim, but the judge said she would recommend his deportation after he served his sentence.

De Bertodano said the two teenagers had betrayed the interests of those who came to Britain fleeing harm.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Barbara Lewis)