Why had been the Afghan teen rapists prowling our streets  unsupervised? Burning questions that MUST be answered after the horrifying crime that shocked the nation

It was a crime that shocked the country and shone a harsh light on an uncomfortable problem rearing its head with troubling regularity in modern Britain.

Time and again, young, male boat migrants are being linked to the menacing of women and girls in even the quietest corners of the country. 

Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both 17, were jailed this week for the rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Leamington Spa, after dragging her away from her friends and into a dark park.

Their terrified victim managed to record footage on her phone as her kidnap ordeal began, showing her weeping, begging to be released and telling her captors: ‘You’re going to rape me.’

The harrowing-three minute clip was so appalling that one of the boy’s own barristers warned it would lead to rioting if the public were to see it.

The boys were this week named following a legal victory by the Daily Mail.

It can now be revealed that the horrifying attack has led to questions about why the two boys were not being supervised that day, despite both arriving in the UK as unaccompanied children.

CCTV of the two predators marching their victim across Mill Bridge into the darkness of Jephson Gardens, a manicured Victorian park in the heart of Leamington Spa, was captured at 9.21pm on the day of the attack, May 10.

Both boys were living in taxpayer-funded accommodation in the Warwickshire town at the time, yet they had seemingly been left to roam free until late in the night, despite being underage.

Even Niazal’s lawyer, Joshua Radcliffe, accepted the case raised concerns about the adequacy of their supervision at the time.

Once in the depths of the park, the two teenagers pushed the victim to her knees so forcefully it ripped her jeans and grazed her knee.

She was forced to perform oral sex on them – her first sexual experience.

The girl eventually managed to free herself from her tormentors and made it back onto the street-lit roads.

It was at this point she started to film several more videos on her phone which showed her weeping and questioning why no-one had stopped to help her.

This simple question, so devastating in its delivery, was particularly pertinent for one particular passerby, who had seen the girl in distress while she was filming her initial three-minute video at the point she was being dragged away by the boys.

The woman, who police have never identified, could be heard urgently asking if the girl is alright. The girl shrieked that she was not alright and begged for help.

But, for reasons that remain a mystery, no help came from the passerby.

As the victim filmed further videos in the aftermath of her rape, the note of bitterness was unmistakable in her voice as she said: ‘Oh my god, I just got f****** kidnapped by these guys…I was screaming for help and no one was listening to me.’

Eventually, a male passerby spotted the distressed girl and stopped to help her. He took her immediately to the police station – a moment of quick-thinking that helped officers secure vital forensic evidence.

The boys were charged two days later, on May 12.

Their case has renewed focus on the problem being faced in towns and cities across the country as local authorities struggle to assimilate thousands of predominantly young men who are arriving in Britain – unknown and unvetted – by small boats across the English Channel.

The uncomfortable reality facing British authorities is that the problem does not seem to simply be one of numbers. It is increasingly one of public safety.

Just weeks after the schoolgirl was attacked in Leamington, a 12-year-old girl was raped in nearby Nuneaton – with two Afghan small boat migrants charged over the attack.

Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, pleaded guilty last month to a single charge of rape against the girl.

But he and co-defendant Mohammed Kabir, also 23, continue to deny a further string of charges related to the alleged abduction and prolonged sexual assault of the underage victim.

They will face trial in January.

Warwickshire Police found itself at the centre of a political firestorm over the case, after the Mail revealed the force had been accused of attempting to cover up the men’s immigration status, for fear of ‘inflaming community tensions’.

Just one day after Jahanzeb and Niazal were jailed at Warwick Crown Court – for 10 years and eight months and nine years and 10 months respectively – another shocking rape case emerged in Bolton.

Afghan national Sultani Bakatash, 28, is accused of raping two 14-year-old girls in a flat in the Middle Hulton area last weekend.

While the precise details of the defendant’s history and immigration status has not been disclosed, the steady succession of grim headlines about Afghan nationals has inevitably led some to question whether current immigration policy is causing a threat to public safety.

The concern about who exactly is arriving on small boats – and how dangerous they are – extends beyond one nationality of course.

In recent months, the Midlands alone has seen Sudanese boat migrant Deng Chol Majek convicted of the unprovoked murder of Rhiannon Whyte, who worked at the asylum hotel where he was living in Walsall, followed days later by the sentencing of Somalian national Haybe Cabdiraxmaan Nur, 47.

Nur, who was known to police in four countries by the time he arrived in the UK in a small boat, was jailed for the murder of restaurant owner Gurvinder Singh Johal, 37, at a bank in Derby. Again, the attack was completely unprovoked.

Yet the two boys jailed this week represent the sharpest end of the crisis presented by new small arrivals.

Jahanzeb and Niazal both arrived in the UK as unaccompanied children.

Jahanzeb is thought to have arrived in the UK in January by small boat – his fourth attempt to reach the UK after previous attempts were thwarted by French police puncturing his dinghy or due to poor weather.

He supposedly fled Afghanistan because he was being threatened by a family who were bereaved due to a fatal crash involving his father. He spent nine months trying to reach the UK from Afghanistan.

Upon arrival he had to undergo a formal age assessment which put his birthday as the generic ‘January 1’, with the year of his birth estimated to be 2008.

Niazal arrived in the UK via small boat on November 8 last year. His lawyer said he had been fleeing the Taliban, who murdered his father because of his role serving in the Afghan army.

Before reaching the UK, he had journeyed through Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and France. He was beaten by police in Serbia and was arrested in Austria for entering the country illegally, Warwick Crown Court was told.

Niazal was initially put up in accommodation in Kent but subsequently moved to the Warwickshire area.

Jahanzeb took to chronicling his new life in the UK on TikTok, which allowed a glimpse into just how brazen the boys were feeling about their freedom in the UK.

An astonishing clip, uncovered by the Mail, showed him swanning about the very park in Leamington Spa where the rape took place – just one day after he and Niazal had committed their shocking crime.

Troublingly, even after the boys pleaded guilty on the first day of their trial at Coventry Youth Court, they were still left free to walk the streets as they pleased.

Despite their horrific crime, Jahanzeb and Niazal were not remanded in custody by a district judge when they both entered guilty pleas on October 21.

Instead, they were separately remanded into the care of social services and left free to wander, with orders to stay at their accommodation between the hours of 7pm and 7am.

It was not until November 19 – six months after the attack – that they were eventually locked up in youth detention to await sentencing, following the intervention of Judge Sylvia de Bertodano.

Passing sentence this week, the judge told the boys: ‘I accept that you come from a place which has significant cultural differences from the UK, however I don’t accept that either of you does not understand the concept of consent.

‘This is a case where it was absolutely clear to both of you that you were talking a child away from her friends in the face of her vigorous protests to somewhere you couldn’t be observed, in order to commit this offence.

‘I’m satisfied you both knew perfectly well that what you were doing was criminal and wrong.

‘You have betrayed the interests of those, like you, who come here fleeing harm and seeking safety and for that you should feel a deep and lasting sense of shame.’

Their victim bravely attended court to watch as her attackers were sent to jail.

In a heartbreaking victim impact statement, she told the court: ‘The day I was raped changed me as a person. I’m no longer a happy, care-free teenager. This was my first sexual experience.

‘When I go out, I no longer feel safe, so much so that I have started to avoid it all together. This has also impacted my education and school life at the worst possible time as I’m taking my GCSEs.

‘I hate that I’m now looked at as a victim, even though that is exactly what I am.’