23 December 2025
An Afghan asylum seeker who raped a teenage girl in a park has been jailed for nine years.
Rapulla Ahmadze approached the ‘vulnerable’ victim in Murray, Scotland in August last year after making ‘intimidating remarks’.
The girl, who was not known to the 21-year-old, was then subjected to unwanted kissing and touching before being dragged to an area of bushes in Cooper Park, Elgin.
He then subjected her to a ‘shocking and violent rape’, before later claiming he had had consensual sex with the victim.
Ahmadze was aged around 20 at the time of the attack, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
He was previously convicted of rape and a separate charge of threatening or abusive behaviour.
Judge Thomas Welsh KC told Ahmadze he had been found guilty by the jury on the basis he acted ‘in a predatory manner’.
Judge Welsh added: ‘You took advantage of a vulnerable teenager who was unknown to you, and you raped her in shocking and violent rape on rough ground in Cooper Park.
‘What happened to her that night must have been a horrific ordeal.’
Rapulla Ahmadze approached the ‘vulnerable’ victim in Murray, Scotland in August last year after making ‘intimidating remarks’
The judge said the jury had disbelieved Ahmadze’s claim that sex had been consensual.
Judge Welsh continued: ‘The harm which you have done is profound and long lasting.’
He said Ahmadze’s actions were ‘motivated by a brutal desire to take sex irrespective of the consent of the victim’.
The judge said the law expects Ahmadze would be deported at the end of his sentence but added this was a ‘matter for the Home Office’.
He imposed a sentence of nine years in jail, backdated to August 2024, and Ahmadze was placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Ahmadze, who is also known as Rafiullah Ahmadzai, was earlier convicted of pulling the victim from a bench in the park on August 4, 2024, kissing her and restraining her.
The charge stated he had walked her to a children’s play area in the park, where he touched her sexually, before taking her to an area of bushes where he pulled down her lower clothes, seized hold of her legs and raped her. She was then subjected to an oral rape.
Defending, Shaun Alexander told the court he did not intend to minimise the seriousness of the crime Ahmadze had been convicted of.
Rapist Rapualla Ahmadze was found guilty at Edinburgh High Court.
But he added Ahmadze had continued to maintain ‘what occurred was consensual’.
He asked the judge to take into account Ahmadze’s age and maturity at the time of the offence.
Ahmadze was born in Afghanistan, a ‘country ravaged by war’, he said.
Mr Alexander stated: ‘I submit that he did not have the childhood that most young people in this country have.’
The Sob Story Begins….
He said Ahmadze was conscripted by his uncle to assist with the Afghan National Army, but both he and his uncle were captured by the Taliban.
His uncle was killed but Ahmadze escaped, during which time he was shot in the arm, the court was told.
Mr Alexander added Ahmadze left Afghanistan in 2022 and undertook an ‘arduous’ journey which brought him to the UK in 2023, where he sought asylum.
The lawyer said Ahmadze had endured ‘significant adverse experiences’ in his life.
Following the sentencing, Police Scotland voiced their commitment to making their service ‘trauma informed’.
Detective Inspector Sam Buchan said: ‘Rapualla Ahmadze is a predatory individual who took advantage of a vulnerable young woman for his own gratification.
‘He will now face the consequences of his actions. We know this was a deeply worrying incident for many people in the local area and I hope this conviction and sentence sends a strong message that sexual violence has no place in our communities.
‘Police Scotland is committed to our role to help create a society where women and girls live free from violence, abuse, exploitation and harassment. This is also reflected in our ongoing commitment to actively pursue perpetrators of violence against women and girls and ensure they are brought to justice.
‘We will continue to work with our valued partners across criminal justice, and support services, to improve the opportunities and support for women to report.’
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30 October 2025
Rapualla Ahmadze was caught on CCTV walking the streets of Elgin, in Moray, in the early hours of the morning before approaching his victim, who was sitting on a bench.
The teenager, then aged 17, told police that the stranger, who was bearded and spoke with a foreign accent, stopped in front of her and asked whether she had a boyfriend
She said that when she replied that she did not, he ‘told me that he was my boyfriend now’.
The victim said she was struggling with mental health issues at the time and sometimes went for a walk at night and listened to her music.
Ahmadze pulled her up off the bench and started walking her towards a play park with one arm around her waist.
She said: ‘When we were walking towards the park I kept thinking I need to get away. I tried to pull away from him three times. When I did this the man pulled me more towards him.’
The teenager said she was scared she would make him mad if she continued to try to get away.
Rapist Rapualla Ahmadze was found guilty at Edinburgh High Court
She was taken to a ‘tunnel’ and pushed to the ground and sexually assaulted. The victim was then walked towards bushes where Ahmadze raped her.
The teen said she kept saying ‘no’ to him but added: ‘The man completely ignored me when I was saying this.’
He then forced her to carry out a sexual act on him.
The victim said she got away only when she spotted another man walking along a path and claimed she had to go, raising her voice to get his attention and going over to him for help.
John Donald, 28, told the High Court in Edinburgh that when the victim approached him, her hands and arms were shaking.
‘I felt a sense of scaredness. The size difference between the male and female was noticeable. The female was little and the male was bigger,’ he said. ‘The female came up to me. At this point she was physically shaking and immediately asked for help.
‘She was crying by this time. She was really struggling to catch her breath. It was like she was hyperventilating.
‘She told me she needed help and asked me to walk her somewhere.’ The victim called a friend and told them she’d been raped and Mr Donald then suggested she go to hospital.
She went to Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin and spoke to staff who alerted police.
Ahmadze, also known as Rafiullah Ahmadzai, denied the rape on August 4, last year having followed the victim.
The 21-year-old claimed that sex was consensual, the victim was happy and instigated what occurred.
He told the court through an interpreter: ‘When we went to the bushes I wanted to leave but she wanted to have sex with me and then we have sex.’
Ahmadze claimed that he was out in the early hours of the morning because he was hungry and looking for a pizza restaurant.
During his evidence to the court, he claimed he was born in 2007 and was currently aged 18.
In an interview with police last year, he said he did not remember his date of birth but claimed that at the time of the incident he was 17. Immigration authorities provided a date of birth as January 2004.
Ahmadze was unanimously found guilty to raping the teenager and also convicted of threatening behaviour on two occasions between March 1 and April 30, last year at a house in Dufftown, Moray, when he acted aggressively and demanded money and the provision of a new shower.
He was staying at a hotel in Elgin at one stage but was later rehoused.
After the verdicts, trial judge Thomas Welsh KC told him: ‘Custody is inevitable in your case.’
Ahmadze was placed on the sex offenders’ register and remanded in custody while a background report and risk assessment are prepared on him ahead of sentencing next month.