Another woman pays the price for the UK’s broken borders

Is the occasional rape something modern Britain is willing to tolerate before the authorities will get a grip on the border? It’s certainly starting to seem that way.

Yesterday, after a five-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court, a Pakistani national was found guilty of raping an 18-year-old girl in Nottinghamshire. Sheraz Malik, 28, met his victim at Sutton Lawn Park, Sutton-in-Ashfield, on 29 June last year. The girl had been drinking with a male friend, and was drunk when she was introduced to Malik. He was among a larger group of older men.

At some point in the evening, Malik guided the intoxicated young woman to a secluded spot, where he proceeded to rape her. The jury was told that he grabbed the victim by the hair and neck, as well as physically striking her during the attack. In court, Malik – who followed the trial with the help of a Pashto interpreter – claimed the sex was consensual. He claimed the girl had said, ‘I really like you’, and, ‘I really enjoyed it’. This stands in stark contrast with the Snapchat message she sent to her friend following the assault. ‘Please help, I can’t cope, I feel like killing myself’, she said. The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on two counts of rape, and a not-guilty verdict on a third.

The horror of this story does not end here. As it transpired, the victim had already been raped once that evening by the time Malik attacked her. Another man in the group – allegedly a friend of Malik’s – had led her away under the guise of helping her find a toilet. He then forcibly violated her before delivering her back to the group. This first suspect has not yet been caught, and appears to have fled abroad.

Presumably, to nip any inconvenient protest in the bud, a reporting restriction placed at Nottingham Crown Court prevented the release of Malik’s immigration status until after the trial. No doubt the judge feared the public’s reaction to news that another ‘asylum seeker’ had been involved in a vicious sex attack.

Sadly, this is far from an isolated case. Time and again, Britain’s broken borders are allowing dangerous, unvetted men to carry out hideous sex attacks on British soil. Malik managed to make his way through Italy, Germany and France before ending up in Britain, seemingly without encountering any resistance from the authorities. Last year, Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu sexually assaulted a woman and a teenage girl in Epping, within just eight days of arriving in the UK. Similarly, Afghan migrant Jan Jahanzeb had attempted the Channel crossing from France three times before finally making it to Dover in 2024. Last year, he became one of two Afghan migrants to be found guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

These are all too familiar tales. In recent years, Britain has borne witness to a string of brutal rapes and sex assaults in public places – from pubs and clubs to parks, graveyards and beaches – perpetrated largely by men who never should have been here in the first place. They have not only been welcomed into the country – they also have been given accommodation, at the taxpayers’ expense.
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Malik will be sentenced on 6 February and his punishment is sure to be harsh. But this will be cold comfort to British women, who are now all too aware that men just like him, who hold repellent views about women, will continue to arrive illegally on our shores, collect their Home Office pocket money and be left to roam the streets. Borderless Britain is becoming a dark and dangerous place.

Georgina Mumford is a content producer at spiked.