Rape pair celebrated as victim was left hysterical

The victim, in her early 20s, was on the phone to her boyfriend asking him to get her a taxi when the attack began and he could hear her screams for 30 seconds before the line went dead.

Afghanis Jailat Khan and Shahzada Khan, both 16, had followed her after she left the HiFi club in Leeds city centre and one spoke to her when she stopped at a bus stop while the other was looking around assessing the area.

When she moved into Fish Street the pair struck from either side bundling her into a fire exit doorway. Once there, Jason Pitter prosecuting told Leeds Crown, Court she was subjected to a violent attack.

She was pushed to the ground and when she screamed Shahzada put his hand over her mouth. She could hear Jailat laughing and tried to struggle but was overpowered. She was crying and after Jailat Khan pulled down her leggings and knickers he raped her while his accomplice held her down.

They ran off when they were disturbed with Jailat Khan still adjusting his clothing and in King Edward Street his co-accused was captured on CCTV making a playful bowling motion in apparent elation.

Two men heard the victim’s distress and went to her assistance. She was hysterical and pleaded with them not to leave her alone saying “Why has this happened to me? Why have they done this to me?”

When the police arrived they found her sitting in the doorway hugging her knees, shaking, crying and muttering.

Jailat Khan of Tempest Road, Beeston, Leeds was ordered to be detained for five years and Shahzada Khan, of Chatsworth Road, Leeds, was ordered to be detained for four years after both admitted kidnap and rape.

Sentencing the pair yesterday Judge Christopher Batty said they had targeted a vulnerable woman alone in the city centre and the effect on her was “immeasurable”.

“Not a day passes without her suffering flashbacks and nightmares. She has not been out since these events, her confidence has gone and she is currently taking anti-depressant medication.”

He told them had they been adults the sentence would have been longer but he had taken into account their plea sparing the victim a trial and their age.

Stephen Crossley for Jailat Khan said he arrived in the UK in 2009 and was given discretionary leave to remain until July next year following the deaths of his father and brother in Afghanistan and loss of contact with his mother and sister in that country.

Neither he nor Shahzada knew their ages and both had been given a statutory birth date of January 1, 1995.

Catherine Silverton for Shahzada said he was brought up in Afghanistan, Pakistan and then the UK by a couple he thought were his parents but discovered when he was remanded they were his aunt and uncle, his real parents having died in a car crash when he was young. He had expressed remorse.

After the case Detective Superintendent Paul Taylor said “This was an extremely shocking incident and is thankfully something which I have never seen before in my many years as a detective.

“After stalking lone women until they were able to find a victim, they then celebrated their crimes in full view of CCTV cameras. This proved to be their undoing” he said. They were identified following an appeal.