Two illegal immigrants raped a woman at knifepoint while she was star gazing in a park during a ‘harrowing attack’.
Afghanis Khan Agah and Noorullah Ahmdzai treated their victim as an ‘object they could use and abuse’ on August 16 last year in Barking Park, east London, a court heard.
Their victim was on a date with another man when, at around 11pm, her attackers pinned her down and said ‘they just wanted to have some fun with her’.
Ahmdzai, 26, raped her while Agah held a Swiss Army-type knife to her date’s throat, threatening to kill him if he tried to call the police before the pair switched roles.
Prosecutors said the woman was suffocated during the ‘petrifying and awful’ sex attack ‘which left her numb’.
The Daily Mail overturned a reporting restriction preventing Agah from being named.
During the trial, Agah said he was aged 16 at the time of the attack and is now 17, but court records stated he is 19.
The court made a temporary reporting restriction ordering that the press could not name Agah because he could be under 18.
Khan Agah can now be named after he was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court of rape
Noorullah Ahmdzai also faces a lengthy prison term for the attack in east London last August
But the Daily Mail successfully argued there was a public interest in his name being published.
Nutan Fatania, prosecuting, said: ‘This was a terrifying knife-point rape at the hands of these two defendants on two strangers.
‘The complainants had met for the first time that day and they were laying down on each other with a guitar, star gazing, when these two men approached them and overpowered them.
‘They viewed the woman they came across as an object they could use and abuse.
‘She was not a human being to them, she was an object they were entitled to violate, but she was not an object, she was real human being subjected to a harrowing attack.’
Detective Constable Megan Lelliott, who led the investigation, said: ‘This was a horrific ordeal for the victim who has been exceptionally brave in not only reporting what happened to her, but also reliving the whole experience during the trial.
‘Her courage means two dangerous men will be held accountable for their actions.
‘We remain committed to thoroughly investigating all reports of rape and sexual offences, while providing every support to those who come forward.
‘We would encourage anyone who believes they have been a victim-survivor to contact police. You will be listened to.’
Agah and Ahmdzai were convicted of two counts of rape, two charges of threatening with a knife, as well as one offence of assault by penetration and one of false imprisonment following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Home Office guidance says the pair should be deported because their sentences, due to be passed in October, will be more than a year.
Judge Leslie Cuthbert warned the rapists they faced ‘lengthy custodial sentences’.
Their victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the trial that she began messaging her date on an online dating app roughly two weeks before the assault.
She said she was lying down in his arms under the stars after he serenaded her with his guitar when they were attacked.
The assailants brandished a knife in front of the woman’s date telling him: ‘I will kill you right now.’
DNA samples retrieved from the victim’s clothing just after the attack, were used by officers to prove that Agah and Ahmdzai were responsible.
Ahmdzai falsely claimed the woman they raped offered to have sex with them for £20 but the jury of five men and seven women rejected his account in nine hours.
Ahmdzai came to Britain on a small boat in August 2023 and was housed in a hotel in London by the Home Office at the taxpayer’s expense, before being moved to Liverpool.
While in Liverpool his claim for asylum was rejected and he began working at a building site to pay for an appeal and returned to London.
Agah also came to the UK illegally but how he arrived remains unclear.
Judge Cuthbert has ordered a dangerousness report to be produced for Agah and Ahmdzai.
He has also asked for a report to establish Agah’s age.
