Migrant deported for raping girl, 12, got £20K in taxpayer legal aid

Afghan migrant deported for raping 12-year-old girl got £20K in taxpayer-funded legal aid to try and overturn conviction

• EXCLUSIVE: Emal Kochai, 29, was deported in 2019 after serving half jail term
• Afghan migrant was caught trying to sneak back into UK on a Channel dinghy  

An Afghan migrant caught trying to sneak back into Britain received taxpayer-funded legal help to try and overturn his conviction after being jailed for raping a 12-year-old girl.

Emal Kochai, 29, was deported from Britain in 2019 after serving half of a nine-year prison sentence for raping his victim at a house in Reading, Berks in 2014.

But he made his way back to the Channel in March 2022 where he was found by a reporter in a tent at the Grande Synthe camp, near Dunkirk, claiming he had ‘changed his ways’.

The convicted paedophile admitted tying to board a boat to Britain, but his crossing failed after police arrived and punctured the vessel with a knife.

Now new Freedom of Information figures show the child sex offender received taxpayers’ cash to pay for a solicitor to challenge his conviction prior to being booted out of Britain in 2019.

Emal Kochai, 29, was deported from Britain in 2019 after serving half of a nine-year prison sentence for raping his victim at a house in Reading, Berks in 2014

The asylum seeker turned rapist received a total of £19,395.02 in legal aid cash to pay for his defence at trial plus a further £1,752.31 for a solicitor to work on a Criminal Cases Review Commission application.

The CCRC investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

Kochai has previously claimed his rape conviction was, ‘all a misunderstanding’.

His victim, told police that Kochai had raped her at a house where there were six or seven other men.

She said that Kochai, known to her as AK, had pushed her on to a bed, pulled off her clothing and raped her.

The other men had knocked on the door and Kochai had opened it, then locked it again and resumed his assault, his trial heard.

Kochai, who was 20 at the time of the offence, denied rape but told police he had been told the girl was 17 and that he would not have touched her if he had known her real age.

David Spencer of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: ‘This case is yet another example of taxpayer money being put straight into the pockets of lawyers tasked with trying to defend the indefensible and mounting frivolous cases to try and keep immigrants in the UK.

But he made his way back to the Channel in March 2022 where he was found by a reporter in a tent at the Grande Synthe camp (file photo of camp pictured), near Dunkirk, claiming he had ‘changed his ways’

‘It is wholly wrong that taxpayer money should be used in this way and this case adds yet more grist to the mill that legal aid is long overdue widespread reform to prevent this sort of abuse of the system.’

The CCRC told us that ‘no application had been received’ from Kochai despite preliminary legal work on a case being undertaken.

The Ministry of Justice, added: ‘Legal aid is not paid directly to defendants. Legal aid is paid to legal representatives to ensure a fair trial.’

Source: Read Full Article