On Monday, Warwick Crown Court handed down lengthy custodial sentences to two 17-year-old Afghan asylum seekers, Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, for the abduction and brutal rape of a 15-year-old girl in Leamington Spa. The case has sent shockwaves across the country, reigniting intense debate about immigration policy, the handling of unaccompanied child asylum seekers, and the duty of the state to protect its most vulnerable citizens while offering sanctuary to those fleeing persecution. In an unusual but widely praised decision, the judge lifted reporting restrictions that would normally shield the identities of underage defendants, declaring that the public had a right to know the full facts of a crime that betrayed the very refuge Britain had extended.
The Brutal Attack That Changed a Young Life Forever
The events of that May evening in 2025 remain seared into the memory of everyone who heard the evidence in court. What began as an apparently casual encounter quickly escalated into a premeditated and terrifying sexual assault. Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal deliberately befriended the 15-year-old victim before leading her to a concealed “den-type” area in Leamington Spa, where they pushed her to the ground and took turns raping her as she screamed and pleaded for help.
The court was shown phone footage recorded by the girl herself during and immediately after the attack – footage the judge described as “highly distressing”. In the clips, her cries for help and raw terror were painfully audible, followed by a second video in which she sobbed uncontrollably while describing what the two teenagers had just done to her. These recordings provided irrefutable evidence of the ordeal and underscored the calculated cruelty of the perpetrators.
Reading her victim impact statement, the girl told the court that the day she was raped had fundamentally changed her as a person. She no longer feels safe leaving the house and has begun avoiding public places altogether. The trauma has severely disrupted her education at a critical time in her schooling, leaving her struggling to cope with even routine aspects of teenage life. Her mother’s statement painted a devastating picture of a once vibrant, confident daughter now plagued by crippling anxiety so severe that she is frequently physically sick, with the ripple effects felt by the entire family.
This is the moment two Afghan migrants kidnap a 15-year-old girl before raping her.
— Peter Lloyd (@Suffragent_) December 8, 2025
Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both 17, committed the attack just THREE MONTHS after arriving in the UK.
They got 10 years each, costing us £1million. Feminists are silent. 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/ib9hI1a2bx
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano was unflinching in her assessment, telling the defendants directly: “You have robbed her of her childhood… What you two did on that evening changed her life forever.” The judge emphasised that no sentence, however long, could ever restore what had been stolen from the victim and her family.
From Asylum Seekers to Convicted Rapists
Both Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal arrived in Britain as unaccompanied child asylum seekers fleeing Afghanistan. Jan Jahanzeb crossed the Channel and entered the country in January 2025; Niazal followed even more recently, arriving in November 2024. Within months – in Jahanzeb’s case less than five months after setting foot on British soil – the pair carried out a planned and predatory gang rape against a British schoolgirl.
The teenagers pleaded guilty to rape at an earlier hearing, sparing their victim the additional trauma of giving evidence at a full trial. Jan Jahanzeb was sentenced to ten years and eight months in youth detention, while Niazal received nine years and ten months. Both will begin their sentences in a young offender institution before transferring to adult prison as they age. They have been ordered to sign the sex offender register for life and are subject to indefinite restraining orders prohibiting any future contact with the victim.
Because of their ages at the time of the offence and guilty plea (17 and 16 respectively), automatic deportation does not apply in the same way it would for adult foreign national offenders. However, Jan Jahanzeb has already been served with deportation papers, and the judge formally invited the Home Office to consider deporting Niazal once he completes his sentence and reaches adulthood.
Addressing the defendants directly, Judge de Bertodano said: “You both came to this country seeking sanctuary. You have betrayed that. You have betrayed everybody who comes here seeking sanctuary and who observes the laws of this country.” In a significant departure from usual practice with minors, she lifted reporting restrictions on their names, photographs, and asylum backgrounds, arguing that anonymity in such cases “stokes public anger and leads to the unchecked spread of false information.” The public, she insisted, deserved transparency.
A Case That Cuts to the Heart of Britain’s Immigration Dilemma
This harrowing case lands at a time when public confidence in the asylum system is already under severe strain. Two individuals who were welcomed as vulnerable children, housed and supported by the British state, committed one of the most serious crimes imaginable against a British child within months of arrival. For many, the question is unavoidable: how could individuals capable of such calculated sexual violence have been assessed as genuine refugees in need of protection, and what safeguards failed so catastrophically?
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Those who defend the current system will rightly point out that the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers, including those fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan, do not commit serious crimes. They will warn against demonising an entire group because of the actions of two individuals, arguing that doing so risks undermining Britain’s historic commitment to offering refuge to the persecuted and plays into the hands of far-right narratives.
Yet that argument, however well-intentioned, struggles to resonate with a public confronted by the shattered life of a 15-year-old girl and the knowledge that her attackers were recent beneficiaries of British hospitality. When the state grants sanctuary to unaccompanied minors, places them in communities, and affords them the full protection of the law, the public is entitled to expect rigorous age verification, thorough risk assessment, and effective supervision. The events in Leamington Spa raise legitimate and urgent questions about whether those safeguards are anywhere near robust enough.
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Hobbs of Warwickshire Police praised the victim’s extraordinary bravery while making the predatory nature of the crime crystal clear: “Jahanzeb and Niazal went out of their way to befriend the victim with the intention of raping her. The length of their sentences reflects the severity of their crime and the need to protect the public from them.”
By naming the perpetrators and highlighting their recent arrival as asylum seekers, Judge de Bertodano ensured this case will be cited in every future debate about small-boat crossings, deportation of foreign national offenders, and the balance between compassion and public safety. Whether viewed primarily as a failure of child protection, women’s safety, immigration control, or integration policy, few can deny the human tragedy at its core.
A British schoolgirl has been robbed of her sense of security and her teenage years. Two young men who might have rebuilt their lives in a new country have instead become lifelong sex offenders facing prison and probable deportation. And a nation is left grappling once again with the painful reality that policy decisions made far from the streets of Leamington Spa can have devastating consequences for ordinary families.
The judge was right: transparency matters. Only by knowing the full, unvarnished truth – however uncomfortable – can Britain have the honest conversation it desperately needs about how to offer refuge to those who truly deserve it without gambling with the safety of its own children.
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