Man, 20, pleads not guilty to child rape offences
A man denies a string of rape offences as he appears at Norwich Crown Court.
A 20-year-old man has entered a not guilty plea to four charges of rape, stemming from an inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation.
Bilal Shinwari, 20, appeared at Norwich Crown Court after being extradited from the Republic of Ireland. He denied all charges against him.
He faces two counts of raping a girl under 16 and one count of conspiring to rape a girl under 16, with the alleged offences occurring between August and October 2023. Shinwari is also accused of one count of conspiring to rape a woman aged 16 or over, allegedly committed between August 2023 and May 2025. He has been remanded in custody.
Shinwari, who resided in Dublin before his arrest by Irish police, spoke only to confirm his identity and plead not guilty.
He is one of eight Afghan men charged in connection with the Norfolk Police investigation. The other seven men are accused of sexual offences committed between August 2023 and May 2025, with three also facing charges of facilitating human trafficking. They collectively pleaded not guilty to 40 counts during a June hearing at Norwich Crown Court and were also remanded in custody.
Norfolk Police stated that Shinwari arrived in the UK via a small boat in 2022 and was an asylum seeker. The other seven men had been granted asylum in the UK.
Previously, Norfolk Police indicated that the charges pertain to two girls who were in their early to mid-teens at the time of the alleged offences in Norwich.
The trial for all eight men is scheduled to commence on January 11.