A former soldier in the pro-NATO Afghan Army who raped two 14-year-old girls after grooming them over Snapchat and plying them with vodka has been jailed for 14 years.

He arrived here in 2022 under the Afghan relocation scheme supported by then Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Sultani Bakatash, 29, targeted one of the girls on the social media app before inviting her and a friend to his flat in Bolton, Greater Manchester on December 6 last year.

He plied them with vodka until they were unconscious, and raped both of them.