A man who posed as a teenager on social media before grooming and raping a 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in the United Kingdom.
Abdul Khan, believed to be 28, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court after being convicted of multiple sexual offences involving the child.
The court heard that Khan arrived in the UK in 2015 after hiding in the back of a lorry.
He communicated with the 13-year-old victim through Snapchat while pretending to be a 14-year-old boy before arranging to meet her at a nature reserve in the Clifton area of Nottingham.
When the girl eventually met Khan, she reportedly realised that he appeared considerably older than the age he had given online. Khan then claimed he was 16, according to evidence presented during the trial.
Jurors heard that following an initial encounter, Khan raped the girl twice in May 2025.
After a four-day trial, he was found guilty of two counts of rape, sexual activity with a child, sexual communication with a child, meeting a child following grooming and perverting the course of justice.
Khan is already serving a separate 23-month prison sentence for sexual communication with another child in the Derbyshire area.
During sentencing on Monday, August 10, prosecutor Dawn Pritchard presented a personal statement from the 13-year-old victim detailing the psychological impact of the abuse.
According to the statement, the girl said she felt numb when remembering what happened and had struggled with fear, flashbacks and difficulties trusting other people.
“She felt scared of the world after it happened and felt overwhelmed. When she has flashbacks she sees his face and what happened. She feels like she can’t trust anyone,” Pritchard told the court while summarising the statement.
Defence barrister Andrew Wesley told the court that he could not offer personal mitigation on Khan’s behalf because the defendant continued to dispute the identity and age under which he had been prosecuted.
Sentencing Khan, Judge Mark Watson said he had deliberately concealed his true identity when communicating with the victim.
“You deliberately concealed your true identity. She thought she was communicating with a child of her own age. It was a lie you have persisted with throughout these proceedings,” the judge said.
Watson described Khan’s claims concerning his age and identity as “nonsensical” and said the victim had been profoundly affected by his actions.
The court heard that the girl’s father contacted police after learning that she had been raped.
Khan was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison and will be required to serve the applicable custodial portion of his sentence before release provisions take effect.
The court was also told that Khan faces automatic deportation to Afghanistan after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
He was further ordered to register as a sex offender indefinitely.
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