Teen ‘groomed on Snapchat whereas Xmas buying earlier than being raped by Afghan gang’

A teenage girl was allegedly groomed on Snapchat before being raped by a group of men in Bristol – Mehrab Safi, 21, Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheil, both 19, and a 16-year-old boy are on trial

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A teenage girl was repeatedly raped and abused by three men and one teenage boy originally from Afghanistan, a jury heard. Mehrab Safi, 21, Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheil, both 19, and a 16 year old boy stand accused of assaulting the 17 year old girl at a house in Bristol in November last year.

Bristol Crown Court was told that the girl had been Christmas shopping with a friend at Cabot Circus shopping centre in the city when they struck up a conversation with Safi, who was a stranger to them, days earlier.

Safi is alleged to have groomed the girl on Snapchat before arranging for a taxi to transport her from her home in Somerset to Bristol in the early hours of November 30. Upon arriving at the property, the girl was given cigarettes and vodka before allegedly being raped by Safi and his co-defendants.

Prosecutor Ed Hetherington informed the jury: “The prosecution say that they sexually abused a young girl who Mr Safi had met and began grooming only days before the rapes took place.

“On November 30 last year, Mr Safi and Mr Habibkheil arranged for her to be brought by taxi to meet them in Bristol in the early hours of a Sunday morning.

“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.

“After Mr Safi had had sex with her, the other three men in the house took it in turns to get her alone in a bedroom or in a bed and to have sex with her against her wishes.

“While all of this was going on, she was plied with alcohol and cigarettes to secure her compliance. She was alone.

“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. We say she was raped and she was abused repeatedly over a period of several hours.”

Mr Hetherington stated that the incident concluded when the girl’s mother contacted the police, with the girl later providing a comprehensive account to officers of what she claimed had occurred.

The jury, consisting of five men and seven women, heard that the girl, who was shopping with a friend, had given Safi her phone number after encountering him at a city shopping centre on November 25.

He subsequently asked her to add him on the social media platform Snapchat, requesting explicit photographs of her on November 28.

In the early hours of November 30, the girl took a taxi from her home in Somerset and travelled to Bristol to meet Safi.

She was initially dropped off in an industrial area of the city, where Safi was waiting with Habibkheil, before they boarded another taxi which transported them to a house in the St Werburghs area.

Mr Hetherington mentioned that CCTV footage depicted the girl and Safi holding hands as they strolled down the road.

“There’s no doubt, she thought she was visiting her new boyfriend or potential new boyfriend,” he informed the jury.

Upon arriving at the house, the girl was instructed to go to his bedroom upstairs.

Safi reportedly told the girl he wanted to have sex with her, which she anticipated and responded that she would but not yet, Mr Hetherington added.

Safi is alleged to have asked the girl to undress six to seven times, assuring they wouldn’t have sex, but then is accused of raping her when she complied.

The girl subsequently got dressed and was led downstairs where the other defendants were engrossed in a video game. Safi, from St Werburghs, Bristol, refutes one count of human trafficking and two charges of rape.

Habibkheil, from Lockleaze, Bristol, denies one count of human trafficking and one charge of rape.

Ahmadzai, from Redcliffe, Bristol, rejects one charge of rape and one of assault by penetration.

The 16-year-old boy also refutes one charge of rape. Their trial, presided over by Judge Michael Cullum, is expected to last up to three weeks.