by Paul Hooper

A young woman was raped on Folkestone seafront after going there following a row with her partner.

The victim had begged her attacker to stop, but Abdul Khalazai ignored her tearful pleas and continued the attack.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that when the girl later relived her terrifying ordeal it triggered "such emotions that they were some of the most shocking ever seen by officers".

Khalazai, 18, of Albert Street, Whitstable, pleaded guilty to rape and was ordered to be locked up in a secure hospital indefinitely.

He had escaped from his native Afghanistan and arrived in the UK in 2006 in the back of a lorry.

Within a year he had carried out his first attack, sexually assaulting a stranger in the street.

Prosecutor Claire Cooper told how in July, last year, he was on Sunny Sands Beach at Folkestone.

The victim, who had just had a row with her partner, had gone there "to calm down".

Khalazai sat next to her on a bench and tried to start a conversation.

"She ignored him because she wanted to be alone. She was nervous being around people, let alone a stranger," said Miss Cooper.

"But Khalazai persisted in asking her questions, asking where she lived. He then put his arm around her shoulder tightly and placed his hand on her breast and squeezed.

"He then tried to kiss her while the two were still sitting on the bench."

The court heard how the victim "froze with fear" as Khalazai's demeanour changed.

"He became angry and was visibly shaking and he became more aggressive", said Miss Cooper.

He then took the girl to a secluded part of the beach and stripped her, taking off her trousers in a "tug of war struggle", the prosecutor said.

The girl would later tell police that her ordeal "felt like she was in a dream and not being able to control of her own movements".

During the attack, he "fondled and bit" her breasts as she begged him to stop.

"She told him that she didn't like it," said Miss Cooper.

After the attack, the victim made numerous suicide attempts, she added.

Khalazai was traced by his DNA. While in prison he tried to hang himself and was transferred to a mental hospital where psychiatrists concluded he had been suffering from a personality disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.

Khalazai, who listened to the 90-minute court hearing via a video link to a mental hospital in Northamptonshire, had claimed he had received head injuries in a car accident in France.

In a probation report, he was assessed as posing "a high risk of the danger of committing more sexual offences".

Judge James O'Mahony issued an order under the Mental Health Act, which means Khalazai will remain in a secure hospital indefinitely until doctors rule he is safe to be released.

He said: "It was a very serious offence with devastating results for the victim."

He concluded that his mental illness had been "linked" to his sex offending.

The judge added: "This order is not a mild admission to hospital for a course of treatment and then him being released.

"A person subject to this order will never be released until the authorities judge that it is safe for the public for him to be released."