Afghan nationals are jailed for grooming and raping teenage girl in Bristol before fleeing UK

From the Newshound archive · first published 6 October 2026 · last updated 7 October 2026.

Mehrab Safi, 21, Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheil, both 19, and a 17-year-old boy were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after being convicted of raping a 17-year-old Somerset girl they groomed on Snapchat. Safi, handed 15 years, first targeted the girl while she was Christmas shopping in Bristol, plied her with vodka and paid for a taxi to bring her to his home where she was attacked over several hours. Days later, the three adult defendants fled to France hidden in a refrigerated lorry, filming themselves celebrating their escape, before French police caught them in Calais and returned them to Britain.

The victim's impact statement told the court she is now "traumatised" and too frightened to leave the house alone.

Judge Michael Cullum said the girl had been "trafficked for the purpose of committing a sexual offence" and that the accumulated trauma "will undoubtedly live with her forever."

During sentencing, some of the defendants grinned and waved to people they knew in the public gallery.