A Green Party councillor has provoked widespread condemnation after appearing to express sympathy for an Afghan asylum seeker who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl in her own council borough, describing the attack as “the rape and what have you” and suggesting the rapist was among those whose lives had been ruined.
Michele Kondakor, who represents the Weddington ward on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, made the remarks in a video shared on social media on 6 May 2026. In the clip, she said: “Lives are ruined all around, you know — the asylum seekers, these very young people, their lives are ruined.”
The man she was referring to, Ahmad Mulakhil, was 23 years old at the time of the attack and is not a young person by any legal definition. Mulakhil was convicted at Warwick Crown Court of raping a child under 13 in Nuneaton last July. He had previously pleaded guilty to a further count of rape and was also found guilty of abducting a child, two counts of sexual assault and making indecent images of a child by filming the assault himself. In March 2026, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with the judge noting that the sentence rendered him automatically liable for deportation. Courts heard the victim suffered significant and ongoing psychological harm as a result of the attack.
The phrase “the rape and what have you” drew particular fury online, condemned as a casual and dismissive description of an attack that courts heard was serious in both its nature and its lasting impact on a child. The characterisation of the 23-year-old convicted rapist as one of “these very young people” whose life had been ruined was widely seen as a profound misplacement of sympathy.
The case had already been the subject of significant public controversy well before Kondakor’s remarks. The initial failure by police to disclose Mulakhil’s status as an asylum seeker sparked local protests and a political row in Nuneaton in the months following the attack. The sentencing in March 2026 reignited that anger, and the protests drew national attention to the case.
The video of Kondakor’s comments was amplified by Reform UK figures in the days immediately before the local elections on 7 May, deepening the political fallout for the Green Party. The party had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
