Channel migrant ‘gang-raped and killed’ young girl before fleeing to UK

Raculi Zubaidulla is accused of plying Leonie Walner with ecstasy before raping her along with three other migrants in his flat in Vienna, Austria, last June.

The 23-year-old and his alleged accomplices then allegedly suffocated her before rolling her up in a carpet and dumping her under a tree in Austria capital, a court heard this week.

Ms Walner's body was found on June 26 last year in Weiner Neustadt, central Vienna.

Within hours of the grim discovery, Zubaidullah had fled - managing to dodge Austrian police and a Europe-wide manhunt, it is claimed.

The Afghan refugee later arrived in Dunkirk, northern France, where he managed to board a trafficker’s boat and arrive in the UK.

Upon arrival, he is accused of giving British authorities a false name and was placed in the Ibis hotel in Whitechapel, east London, which is being used to house migrants at the taxpayers’ expense.

British police later received a tip-off from their Austrian counterparts and found him hiding in a room at the hotel in late July, a court heard.

He now faces extradition to Austria for rape and severe sexual abuse of a person under the age of 14.

Westminster Magistrates Court heard that initial investigations revealed Ms Walner met Zubaidullah and one of his accomplices at the Danube Canal, Vienna, on June 25, 2021.

They took ecstasy and went back to Zubaidullah's apartment in Donaustadt, in Vienna's 22nd district, where they were joined by two other men, aged 18 and 23.

The men - who are all migrants - allegedly gave the schoolgirl more drugs to “make her compliant” before raping her and rolling her body up in the carpet.

They were reportedly caught after boasting to a friend about having wild sex with a young girl.

This unnamed person later contacted authorities who launched an investigation.