Rapist ‘seized opportunity’ with teenage girls in Bolton

Sultani Bakatash, 29, claimed to have worked with the military for seven years before eventually coming to Bolton in 2022, fleeing his homeland after the return of the Taliban.

Bolton Crown Court heard how, while living in the town, Bakatash spoke to one of his two victims, both 14, via Snapchat before ultimately taking them back to his flat and raping them.

Charlotte Rimmer, prosecuting, said: “Once at the flat he plied them with alcohol to the point where they were slipping in and out of consciousness before seizing the opportunity to rape them.”

Bakatash, who wore a black gilet with a grey top and trousers in the dock, listened on through an interpreter speaking Dari, a language commonly spoken in Afghanistan, as the case was set out.

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Phil Taylor)

Ms Rimmer said the two girls had tried to push him off and hid in his bathroom as Bakatash, “intent on sexual gratification”, continued to force himself on them.

She said that video footage taken by the police in the aftermath of the assault showed just how vulnerable they were.

Bakatash had said during his trial that he had studied pharmacy and medicine in his native Afghanistan before working with the British military.

The 29-year-old had come to the UK under the asylum system in 2022 and stayed in a hotel for around a year and a half before his move to Bolton.

Sultani Bakatash has been jailed (Image: GMP)

Ms Rimmer told the court how, in December last year, Bakatash met the two girls in a churchyard near Bolton Station on December 6 after the two had been out past their curfew.

He then took them in an Uber back to his flat on Georgina Court, Middle Hulton, stopping along the way to buy alcohol.

Ms Rimmer said that both girls told him that they were 14 but this “did not dissuade him”.

Bakatash showed no visible reaction as Ms Rimmer described in detail how he assaulted both girls at the Georgina Court flat before one of them eventually broke out.

A court sketch of Sulatani Bakatash at an earlier hearing (Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA)

She was able to tell a neighbour that Bakatash had the other girl “locked” in his flat where he was raping her.

Bakatash was arrested shortly after and claimed in a prepared statement that one of the girls had met him several months before and claimed to be 19.

He at first claimed that all sexual activity had been consensual but changed his position when brought before the court and claimed no sexual contact had taken place.

But after a trial earlier this year, a jury of six men and six women convicted him of two counts of rape of a girl under 16 after just two hours of deliberation.

They also convicted Bakatash, of Georgina Court, Middle Hulton, of one count of sexual assault and two counts of assault by penetration.

Ms Rimmer said that one of the girls was left with severe lasting psychological damage, while another had shared to a social worker how angry it had left her.

But she said she was determined to move on and not to be defined by the events of that night.

Umar Shezhad, defending, said it was still the defence’s position that the two girls had asked Bakatash to buy the alcohol for them.

He said that the rapes were part of an “isolated incident” and there was no grooming element to it.

Mr Shezhad said it was “wholly out of character” for Bakatash, who has no previous convictions and who “worked for the British Army for a significant period of time, risking his life.”

But he said that though he maintained that he was not guilty, Bakatash was “deeply sorry for the pain and suffering he has caused everyone”.

Judge Kenderick Horne said that though the identity of the two girls can never be made public, he paid tribute to their courage and to those around Georgina Court who helped them.

He said it had been a “visibly diverse” community that had helped them.

Judge Horne said: “Their names can never be reported, but their bravery and that of those around them deserves to be remembered after your crimes have been forgotten.”

He noted a pre-sentence report that suggested Bakatash still posed a likely danger to children and to adult women.

Bakatash showed no visible reaction as Judge Horne jailed him for 14 years with an extended licence period of two years.

Judge Horne ruled that he must serve at least two-thirds of the 14 years before the parole board considers whether he is eligible for release, after which he may be deported.

He also made Bakatash subject to a lifetime notification order, a 20 year sexual harm prevention order and a restraining order against both girls.