Authorities have been accused of attempting to 'cover up' a child rape involving two Afghan migrants which shocked the country, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The police and judiciary are alleged to have shrouded the case of Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal in secrecy 'from start to finish' after they were arrested for raping a schoolgirl.

The teenagers were jailed last Monday for abducting and raping the 15-year-old girl in the picturesque town of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, leading to widespread public outcry.

But despite arriving in the UK by small boat just months before the attack, the two asylum seekers were described by Warwickshire Police as 'two 17-year-old boys from Leamington' when charges were announced, while their victim - a child - was referred to as a 'young woman'.

Then, in a move later criticised by a senior judge, the boys stood trial before a youth court, meaning members of the public could not attend and strict anonymity rules were in place.

Their identities were only revealed when the case was sent to Warwick Crown Court for sentencing and the Daily Mail mounted a successful legal challenge to anonymity restrictions.

Lambasting how the case was handled by the lower court, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said it was 'very, very surprising' and 'unfortunate' the two boys had not been immediately sent before the crown court 'given the real seriousness of the offences'.

The latest transparency fiasco comes just months after the Daily Mail revealed the same police force was being accused of attempting to hush up the immigration status of two other Afghan asylum seekers charged with raping a 12-year-old in nearby Nuneaton, for fear of 'inflaming community tensions'.

Last night, critics warned the true nature of criminal cases involving migrants were being concealed from the public by the police and the judiciary.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: 'The police appear to have lied to the public in order to downplay this appalling crime.

'The accused were not local lads "from Leamington", they were illegal migrants who arrived in the UK months earlier. And the victim was not a "young woman", she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

'From start to finish this case has been shrouded in secrecy. The police should have been transparent at the start and the case should never have been heard behind closed doors in the youth court.'

The police's decision to describe the child victim as a 'woman' was labelled 'sick' by shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who added: 'The natural instinct of the authorities is to cover up the fact that thousands of crimes - including the rape of young girls - are committed by illegal immigrants.

'The facts should not be hidden - the public deserve the truth.'

Jahanzeb and Niazal lured their victim away from where she had been socialising with friends on a sunny day in May – before dragging her towards a dark park as night fell.

Realising what was happening, the schoolgirl recorded a harrowing three-minute clip on her phone which captured her weeping and saying 'you're going to rape me'.

The footage, which was played to a court, was so appalling that one of the boy's own barristers warned it would lead to rioting if the public were to see it.

The boys then forced the girl to perform oral sex on them.

Jahanzeb was ultimately jailed for 10 years and eight months and Niazal for nine years and 10 months, but the boys were told they would have been jailed for 18 years if they were adults.

Yet despite the seriousness of the offence, District Judge John Bristow decided to conduct the trial himself when their case came before Coventry Youth Court earlier this year.

At this stage, the press were completely unaware of the real nature of the case due to Warwickshire Police suggesting the accused were 'from Leamington' - and no journalists were present.

It meant the entire case was effectively due to be heard behind closed doors, until the boys changed their pleas to guilty on the first day of the trial.

Further farce followed. 

Despite 'overwhelming evidence' against the boys, the district judge agreed to have a so-called Newton Hearing because the defendants complained their crimes were not as serious as made out by the prosecution.

Jahanzeb claimed simply that he was drunk, while Niazal sought to minimise the predatory attack by arguing he believed his underage victim was consenting, even though this belief was 'unreasonable'.

The sentencing judge later said the decision to hold this hearing was impossible to justify as neither defendant gave evidence nor called any evidence to support their case.

She said: 'I'm very, very surprised this was dealt with in the youth court and didn't immediately come up to the crown court given the real seriousness of the offences.

'It seems surprising, to say the least, that resulted in a Newton Hearing, because the evidence was effectively overwhelming.'

But the apparent blunders did not end there. 

As revealed last week by the Daily Mail, the two rapists were then allowed to roam the streets for almost a month after their guilty pleas on October 21, due to the district judge agreeing to remand them into the care of the local authority.

They were only locked up in youth detention to await sentencing 29 days later, on November 19, when their case finally reached crown court for the first time and the judge immediately overturned the youth court's decision.

Warwickshire Police have now accepted the victim should not have been described as a young woman in the force's initial witness appeal.

A spokesman said: 'At the time of the charge for rape, the two charged individuals were residents in Leamington so therefore the information given was accurate in terms of their home address.

'While we appreciate guidance is now in place to release ethnicity and nationality of suspects at point of charge, there was no such guidance in place at that time in May 2025.

'We acknowledge that we referred to the victim as a young woman in the original witness appeal. We subsequently referred to her as a girl in all further updates - the original appeal is now amended.'