Rapist GUILTY of assaulting two teen girls in Bolton flat

Sultani Bakatash, 29, denied raping both 14-year-old girls after taking them to his flat at Georgina Court in Middle Hulton in December last year.

At a trial before Bolton Crown Court, he claimed that no sexual contact had taken place between him and them.

Giving evidence through a Dari interpreter earlier in the trial, Bakatash described meeting the first of the two girls outside McDonald’s on Knowsley Street.

This was around three months before the rapes took place.

He said: “She said she was 19 but the lady who was with her uttered something along the lines of 15 or 16 and that’s why I refused.”

The trial took place at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Phil Taylor)

Bakatash told the court he had worked for the UK military for seven years in Afghanistan before coming to the UK in 2022.

He then eventually settled in Bolton.

Bakatash said: “The reason for coming here was the coming of the Taleban.

“In their presence I could not live there so I came here.”

But evidence given to the jury by the two girls described how he had met them in a churchyard near Bolton Station on that day in December.

He then took them via an Uber taxi to buy alcohol before taking them back to his flat.

This, prosecutor Charlotte Rimmer said, was when he “seized the opportunity to rape and abuse them.”

Both girls gave evidence from behind a screen as Bakatash looked on earlier in the trial.

One of the girls was asked by Umar Shazhad, defending if she had lied about the sexual assault claimed because she had been out after her curfew and had been reported missing.

She said: “Why would I make it up?”

She added: “Just because I’m missing doesn’t mean I’m going to make something up about sexual assault.”

After just two hours of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women found Bakatash, of Georgina Court, Middle Hulton, guilty of two counts of rape of a girl under 16.

They also convicted him of one count of sexual assault and two counts of assault by penetration.

Judge Kenderick Horne ordered that he be brought back before the court to be sentenced on September 9 this year.

Speaking after the hearing, Jo Service, for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “In this deeply concerning case, Sultani Bakatash subjected two teenage girls to a frightening sexual ordeal.

“He plied the girls with alcohol before raping and sexually assaulting them when they were too intoxicated to resist.

“In pursuit of his own sexual gratification, he gave no thought to the lifelong harm the abuse could have on his victims.

“I would like to thank the victims for supporting the prosecution and I hope they can find comfort in knowing that because of their support, we have been able to bring Bakatash to justice.”