Three men and teenage boy convicted of rape and grooming

Trigger warning: This story contains references to sexual assault, rape and child exploitation. 

Three men and a teenage boy were found guilty of raping and grooming a teenage girl in Bristol in November 2025.

Mehrab Safi (21), Salman Habibkheil and Awal Ahmadzai (both 19) fled to France following the incident but were arrested a few days later.

They were convicted of multiple offences at a Bristol Crown Court hearing on Friday, where a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named due to his age, was also convicted of rape.

The four offenders will be sentenced at a hearing on Tuesday – photo: Betty Woolerton

Safi met the 17-year-old victim when the latter was on a Christmas shopping trip to Bristol with a friend on November 25 2025. The victim and her friend denied Safi’s attempts to get them to visit his house on the pretext of offering drugs and a place to charge their phones.

However Safi started messaging the victim soon after they left, adding her to Snapchat and asking for indecent photographs.

On November 29, Safi and Habibkheil arranged for a taxi that brought the victim into Bristol to the former’s house in St Werburgh’s.

The victim was then given alcohol to the point that she got drunk, before she was sexually assaulted and raped by all four defendants for several hours.

Police officers found the victim at Safi’s house with the 17-year-old boy after her mother reported her missing on the morning of November 30.

The teenage boy was arrested after the victim reported the raped to an attending officer.

All other offenders fled the house when the police arrived, but were arrested a few days later when stopped after travelling to France and being brought back to the UK.

Both Habibkheil’s and Ahmadzai’s phones had been used to search for news about the incident online, including looking at police and court procedures for offences similar to those they had committed.

All four offenders are Afghan nationals and were convicted of the following offences:

• Safi, whose self-defined ethnicity is “any other Asian background”, was charged with two counts of rape and one count of arranging or facilitating the travel of a female with a view to exploitation
• Habibkheil, of Lockleaze, whose self-defined ethnicity is “any other Black background”, was charged with one count of rape and one count of arranging or facilitating the travel of a female with a view to exploitation
• Ahmadzai, of no fixed address, whose self-defined ethnicity is “any other Asian background”, was charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault
• The 17-year-old boy was charged with one count of rape

All four denied the offences, claiming it was “consensual sexual activity”.

Detective Chief Inspector Matt Cable from Avon and Somerset Police said: “These four people exploited a vulnerable young girl purely for the purposes of their own sexual gratification.

“They are dangerous individuals who pose a significant threat to young women and girls and gave not a single thought to the welfare of the victim.

“This has been a complex investigation and credit goes to the officer in the case and all the officers and staff involved in ensuring we built a solid case to put before the court.

“These convictions all send a clear message: perpetrators of child sexual exploitation will be tracked down and face justice.”

The four offenders will be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday.

Main photo: Avon and Somerset Police