A Chesham man has been found guilty of raping a 17-year-old girl after he kidnapped her off the street.

The girl had been out socialising with friends in Hemel Hempstead and was waiting to be collected by her family at the rear of Primark, on Waterhouse Street, when Mohammed Atif Khan drove past in his car.

The 37-year-old, of Upper Meadow, then proceeded to drive her to Chesham before both sexually assaulting and raping her.

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Khan then drove the traumatised girl back to Hemel Hempstead and told her she could get out of the car, leaving her to make her way back to the town centre where she was later collected by her family.

On Thursday (17 March), he was convicted of kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence, rape, oral rape and sexual assault by penetration.

The girl told her family what had happened the night of the attack, and they called the police.

An investigation was launched by the constabulary’s Sexual Offences Investigation Team before the case was later taken on by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit (BCH MCU).

Detectives trawled hours of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and CCTV footage to ascertain the movements of the vehicle involved.

They identified a white Volkswagen Polo of interest, which was registered to Khan at an address in Chesham.]

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The vehicle was forensically recovered by Thames Valley Police, and Khan was arrested on September 1.

Phone data analysis also placed Khan in the same locations as the girl at the time of the offences.

Khan was later charged and after pleading not guilty, was remanded in custody ahead of his trial.

During the trial at Luton Crown Court, the jury was shown CCTV from the evening of  August 28, last year, of Khan reversing back and parking up, before he forced the girl into his vehicle.

Following the conviction, he was remanded back into custody and is awaiting sentencing at Luton Crown Court on May 13.

Detective Inspector Justine Jenkins, from the BCH MCU, led the investigation. She said: “News of this stranger attack caused understandable and considerable concern in the community at the time, so I am pleased to share that we have managed to secure a conviction on behalf of the victim.

“She has shown incredible courage throughout the whole investigation and court case, especially after Khan’s refusal to admit what he had done meant she had to endure the trauma of giving evidence.

"She has been supported by specially trained officers throughout and has also received additional help from partner organisations.

“Khan has shown himself to be a dangerous sexual predator who, when he saw the victim alone, decided to unashamedly exploit the situation for his own sickening gain.

"He is now behind bars as we await the outcome of his sentencing next month.”

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