Three Afghan Men Jailed After Fleeing UK Over Rape of Teenager Groomed on Snapchat

Three Afghan nationals who sexually assaulted a teenage girl after grooming her online have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, bringing to a close a case that began with what should have been an ordinary Christmas shopping trip and ended with an international manhunt.

Mehrab Safi, 21, Awal Ahmadzai and Salman Habibkheli, both 19, were convicted on 26 June of multiple offences committed against the girl at a property in the St Werburghs area of Bristol in November of last year. The three were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday, with Safi receiving 15 years' imprisonment and his two co-defendants each handed nine-year terms in a youth detention centre.

The court heard that the victim, who was 17 at the time and cannot be identified for legal reasons, first encountered Safi during a Christmas shopping outing to Bristol's Cabot Circus shopping centre on 25 November 2025. She had travelled to the city for the first time with a friend. The pair exchanged contact details, and Safi subsequently used Snapchat to cultivate a relationship with the teenager, in what detectives described as a calculated grooming process.

Det Sgt Jo Babbage of Avon and Somerset Police told the court that communication between the pair had begun roughly five days before the assaults, primarily through the social media platform. It was through these exchanges that Safi persuaded the girl to send him nude photographs. He then arranged and paid for a taxi to collect her from her family home in Somerset and bring her to Bristol in the early hours of 30 November.

When she arrived at Safi's home, the court heard, the girl was plied with alcohol before being sexually assaulted and raped over a period of several hours by all four perpetrators. Alongside the three men, a 17-year-old boy — also an Afghan national who cannot be named for legal reasons — was convicted of rape. Unlike the others, he did not attempt to leave the country and was sentenced to two years and seven months in a youth detention centre.

Police were only alerted after the victim's mother reported her missing. Officers attended the St Werburghs address and located the girl there. The teenager was arrested at the scene, but the three men managed to escape before they could be detained.

Their flight triggered a cross-border operation. The men travelled first to Birmingham and then to London, before leaving the UK hidden in the back of a lorry. They were intercepted by French police during their attempted escape and subsequently returned to face justice in Britain.

In a victim impact statement read aloud to the court, the girl described the profound and lasting effect the attacks had on her life. She said she had been left "traumatised" and now feared leaving her home. "I had a lot more friends, I would go out a lot more, I was happier," she told the court. "Now, I've stopped going out, I don't even leave the house in general." She explained that she could only venture outside when accompanied by her mother or closest friend, adding that the mere thought of going out alone triggers panic.

The teenager also described how her mind attempts to suppress the memories of what happened, but that the trauma resurfaces when she is emotionally low, leaving her feeling worse. She said she sometimes dreams about the ordeal, which she finds deeply distressing, and that she now considers herself a fundamentally "different person" from who she was a year ago.

Sentencing the men, Judge Michael Cullum said the experience of being trafficked and raped would have caused the victim "unimaginable" trauma. His remarks underscored the gravity with which the court viewed the case, which involved both online grooming and the transportation of a child across county lines for the purpose of sexual abuse.

Det Sgt Babbage praised the victim's courage throughout the investigation, describing her as "very brave" despite being left deeply traumatised by the attacks. She also reflected on the wider implications of the case, noting that the victim had simply been enjoying a festive shopping trip when she was targeted. "Just hearing that, reading it, this Christmas shopping trip that ended like that, as a parent, makes you feel terrified for your children to go out," she said.

The case highlights growing concerns about the use of social media platforms such as Snapchat as tools for grooming vulnerable young people. In this instance, the court heard, initial contact was made face-to-face before moving online, where the grooming intensified and the victim was manipulated into sending intimate images. Police forces across the UK have repeatedly warned that predators exploit the perceived privacy and ephemeral nature of such platforms to establish control over their targets.

The sentencing brings a measure of closure to a case that spanned multiple countries and involved the coordination of British and French authorities. It also serves as a reminder of the complex challenges facing law enforcement when suspects attempt to flee jurisdiction, and of the importance of swift reporting when a young person goes missing.

The BBC's Action Line provides information and support for anyone affected by issues raised in this case.