A 17-year-old girl in Britain experienced nightmarish moments at the hands of four Afghan men, who were repeatedly raped in November 2025 after they approached her via Snapchat and took her to a house in Bristol, where they repeatedly sexually abused her.

According to the Daily Mail, the nightmare for the 17-year-old was Christmas shopping with a friend in a Bristol shopping center. There, she met 21-year-old Mehrab Shafi, with whom she exchanged contact details.

According to the prosecution, Shafi began communicating with her via the Snapchat application and allegedly asked for personal photos of her.

As reported in court, the minor eventually sent him nude photos of herself. She was picked up by taxi Two days later, in the early hours of November 30, Shafi allegedly arranged for a taxi to pick up the girl from her home in Somerset and take her to an industrial area of ​​Bristol.

There, according to the indictment, she was met by Shafi and 19-year-old Salman Habibhill and taken to a house in the St. Werburghs area. The prosecution alleges that she was offered alcohol and cigarettes and then sexually assaulted by the defendants.

The prosecutor told the jury that the minor was “sexually abused by young men whom she knew little and with whom she had only come into contact a few days before the events.” As he said, upon arriving at the house she was taken to Shafi’s bedroom.

He expressed his desire to have sexual intercourse with her, to which the girl replied, according to the prosecution, that she did not want such a thing at that moment. He asked her to take off her clothes Hetherington claimed that Safi repeatedly asked her to take off her clothes, assuring her that they would not proceed with a sexual act. However, according to the indictment, the first attack followed.

The prosecution claims that the 17-year-old was then taken back to the ground floor of the residence, where the other defendants were, and that additional rapes followed over a period of several hours. “She was alone, isolated, in an unknown city, kilometers away from her home, in the middle of the night, in a house full of men she did not know,” the prosecutor said, adding that the girl was under pressure and that she was constantly offered alcohol and cigarettes.

According to the evidence presented in court, the incident ended when the minor’s mother contacted the police. Later, the 17-year-old gave a detailed statement to the officers about what she claimed happened. She allegedly told the officers that after the incidents she persistently asked to leave the house. “I just wanted to go back to my house. I didn’t feel safe. I just wanted to leave,” she said in her statement, according to what was heard in court.

Victim and perpetrator were recorded on camera walking together The jury was also informed that security cameras recorded Safi and the 17-year-old walking together holding each other’s hands a few days before the incident. The prosecutor stressed that there is no doubt that the girl believed she was visiting a new partner or a potential future partner.

After the police investigation began, the authorities located the minor at the residence in the St. Werburghs area and arrested the 16-year-old defendant when he opened the door to officers. According to the prosecution, the three older defendants left the house before the police arrived and then traveled to Birmingham and London.

Analysis of their mobile phones allegedly showed that they were conducting internet searches for news related to the case in Bristol, as well as for topics related to sexual relations with minors.

At the same time, the prosecutor argued that their actions are an indication that they knew the seriousness of the allegations against them. The court also heard that on December 3, the three men left the United Kingdom hidden in the back of a lorry bound for France. However, they were located by French authorities in Calais at around 9pm that same day and immediately returned to Britain under a cooperation agreement between the two countries.

By the early hours of 4 December they had been handed back to British authorities and arrested. The prosecution said the three men were not carrying travel or identification documents and had provided false identification to the French authorities. The court was also shown a video recovered from Shafi’s mobile phone, showing the three defendants in the back of the truck during the journey to France.

According to the prosecutor, the video shows the defendants laughing and gesturing towards the camera, which, he argued, shows that they believed they had avoided the consequences of their actions.