Child rapist who got a 12-year-old girl pregnant is jailed

The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, initially claimed that she had been “dragged into bushes in Halifax” and raped, but a complex police inquiry untangled her account and 24-year-old Sudanese asylum-seeker Adnan Bakhit was questioned about his relationship with her.

Bakhit, of Byron Street, Halifax, said he genuinely believed the girl was 16, but maintained that he had not had sex with her during the relationship.

Prosecutor Nick Adlington told Bradford Crown Court that after the girl had a termination officers were able to secure the foetus and tests on it confirmed the paternity.

Bakhit, who had no previous convictions, answered no comment to further questions, but at a hearing last October he pleaded guilty to two charges of rape of a girl under 13.

Barrister Yunus Valli submitted to the court that the complainant had told his client that she was 16 and other circumstances about the case supported a submission that Bakhit had a genuine and reasonable belief that she was over 16.

He said it was not a case where Bakhit had gone looking for the girl.

But sentencing Bakhit to five years and four months in jail Judge David Hatton QC said the girl had also told Bakhit that she was 12 and he had not taken any steps to ascertain the true position before they had sex.

Bakhit will have to comply with a sexual harm prevention order when he is released from custody and he will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for life.

Speaking after the sentence Detective Sergeant John Moore of Calderdale CID said; “I would like to praise the victim in this case for her immense bravery in coming forward, and hope that Bakhit’s sentencing goes some way to provide comfort and closure to what has understandably been a very distressing time.

“We would always encourage anyone who may have been the victim of a sexual offence to come forward knowing that they will be taken seriously, dealt with sensitively and that we will do everything possible to detect offenders and bring them to justice.”