An Afghan migrant accused of abducting and twice r@ping a 12-year-old girl in the UK told police he believed she was in her early 20s, a jury has heard.
Ahmad Mulakhil is on trial at Warwick Crown Court, accused of targeting the child before r@ping and s£xually ass@ulting her in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on July 22 last year.
Prosecutors also allege the girl was strangled by Mulakhil’s friend Mohammad Kabir, who is accused of intending to take her away for a s£xual purpose.
Mulakhil also told officers a charge of oral r@pe of the girl he has admitted was his first s£xual encounter and had not involved the use of force or any threats.
The girl, who cannot be identified, alleges Mulakhil laughed and ignored her pleas to stop as he attacked her on a grassed area.
It is alleged Mulakhil attacked the girl after 24-year-old Kabir, also originally from Afghanistan, had chatted to her on a canal bridge and grabbed her around the neck.
Mulakhil, assisted by an interpreter, told police in two interviews conducted on July 26 last year that kissing and sexual activity between him and the victim ‘was her desire that she wanted’.
The defendant, whose replies to questions from police were read to jurors by Crown barrister Daniel Oscroft, told officers: ‘Because of the language barrier we couldn’t understand each other that much.’
Claiming the girl had ‘insisted’, Mulakhil told the officers: ‘I did not have experience in the past with a girl.
She was agreed, I was agreed too. She was insisting and she was following me. She wasn’t scared. She was following me with her own consent.’
The court heard Mulakhil told police the girl had informed his friend she was 19, and was then asked by a police officer how old she had looked to him.
Mulakhil responded: ‘It could be 23-24 yeah. I didn’t focus that much.’
He also told police that he believed the age of consent was 19-20 and that the girl ‘was a bit older’ and could have left if she wanted to.
When asked if he understood that someone aged 12 cannot legally consent to sex, the court heard Mulakhil answered: ‘It’s understandable – no one will have sex with a 12-year-old.’
Mulakhil denies child abduction, two counts of r@pe, two counts of s£xual ass@ult and taking indecent photographs of a child.
Kabir, also denies intentional strangulation, committing an offence with intent to commit a s£xual offence and attempting to take a child.
The trial continues.