Asylum seeker Safi’s jail term raised after assault on girl, 7

An asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl in a London immigration hostel has had his jail term increased by 18 months after judges ruled the original sentence unduly lenient.

Afsar Safi pulled the child into his room, grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the cheek at the hostel on 6 September last year. He entered Britain on a small boat in 2021, denied the charges, and was convicted in April of kidnapping and sexual assault of a child. He received two years and six months. On Friday the Court of Appeal raised that to four years.

Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting with Mr Justice Swift and Mr Justice Kimblin, said the sentencing judge had not taken the kidnap offence seriously enough. “It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the reason he selected his victim was her age and inability to resist. We are satisfied the sentence that was passed in this case did not adequately reflect the offender’s criminality.”

The court heard the girl noticed Safi staring before he offered an apple and invited her in. She refused five times. He then pulled her inside, forced the apple into her bag and assaulted her before letting her leave. She no longer feels safe around single men and suffers recurring nightmares.

Britain cannot keep housing men who arrive illegally and then prey on children in the very hostels paid for by the taxpayer. Borders that mean nothing, and sentences that shrug at kidnap of a seven-year-old, tell every would-be arrival the same weak message. The public expects protection first, not excuses about youth or language.

Ben Lloyd, for the Solicitor General, told the court the original judge was wrong to cut the term for Safi’s youth, claimed difficult childhood and limited English. Safi says he came from Afghanistan in 2021 after being taken as a slave for the Taliban at ten. Through a Pashto interpreter he stated: “I like children, and she was a child. I asked her where she was going. She said she was waiting for her mother to go shopping. I kissed her to the face. I kissed her out of the love for children. Back home, all the people do that.”

Appeal still pending after claim refused

His asylum claim has already been refused yet he remains while an appeal is decided. Jai Patel, for Safi, argued the assault details belonged in a lower sentencing category. GB News reported the full Court of Appeal ruling that rejected that view and lengthened the term.

The case lays bare the gap between arrival by small boat, placement in shared hostels, and the slow grind of removal even after conviction for attacking a child. Judges have now corrected one soft sentence. The wider system that put Safi in that hostel in the first place still has to answer for how many more such risks it is prepared to run.

What happens next turns on the outstanding asylum appeal and whether the longer sentence is served in full before any further attempt to stay. The girl’s family must live with the damage already done. Four years is the new mark set by the Court of Appeal for this offence against a seven-year-old.

Original source: GB News

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