Girl, 17, 'raped by four Afghan nationals including 16-year-old boy over several hours'

A 17-year-old girl was raped by four Afghan nationals after being lured to a home and given alcohol and cigarettes, a court has heard. Mehrab Safi, 21, Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheil, both 19, and a school-aged boy allegedly attacked the girl in Bristol.

The jury was told that the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was out Christmas shopping with a friend at Cabot Circus Shopping Centre when they got talking to Safi, whom they had not met before. He later asked her to add him on Snapchat before requesting nude photographs of her on November 28. Two days later, Safi allegedly arranged for an early-morning taxi to take her from her home in Somerset to Bristol. She was first dropped off in an industrial part of the city, where Safi and Habibkheil were waiting. The trio then got into a second taxi, which drove them to a property in the St Werburghs area.

Once at the property, she was provided with cigarettes and vodka before being allegedly raped by Safi and his co-defendants, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Ed Hetherington, prosecuting, said: "Once she arrived, she was taken to a home in St Werburghs, and she was very quickly expected to have sex with Mr Safi.

"She didn't want to, not yet, but it happened anyway."

The court was told that after she was allegedly raped by Safi, the other three defendants "took it in turns to get her alone in a bedroom or in a bed and to have sex with her against her wishes".

"She was alone," Mr Hetherington added. "She was isolated in an unfamiliar city miles from home, in the dead of night, with a house full of men she didn't know."

Jurors were told the alleged attack ended when the girl's mother contacted the police.

It has also emerged that Safi, Ahmadzai and Habibkheil fled the UK in the back of a lorry on December 3, just three days after the alleged rape took place.

The three Afghan nationals were discovered by the French authorities in Calais. Mr Hetherington said the trio fled the house as the police arrived and, in the aftermath, travelled to both Birmingham and London.

"By the early hours of December 4, the three of them were returned to the custody of the English police."

Mr Hetherington said the three defendants had no travel documents or identification and had given false names to the French authorities.

"Their real names were checked on the police systems, and they were arrested on suspicion of rape," he added.

Mobile phone analysis showed they had also searched for news items in Bristol and for information about sexual activity with a teenage girl.

"At this point, the three defendants are still at large, giving the clearest possible indication that they are aware that they have done something very seriously wrong indeed," Mr Hetherington said.

Safi has denied one count of human trafficking and two charges of rape. Habibkheil pleaded not guilty to one count of human trafficking and one charge of rape.

Ahmadzai has denied one charge of rape and one of assault by penetration, while the 16-year-old boy pleaded not guilty to one charge of rape.

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.