Emal Kochai served half of 9-year sentence for raping 12-year-old girl in 2014 The Times newspaper found Kochai in French migrant camp LONDON: The British foster mother of an Afghan migrant who was jailed and deported for the rape of a 12-year-old girl has told the man to avoid returning to the UK after he was discovered in a French migrant camp, The Times reported. Emal Kochai, now 28, was jailed in 2014 for raping the girl in a Berkshire home. He was deported in 2019 after serving half of his sentence. The Times discovered the Afghan at a migrant camp in northern France this week, with the 28-year-old telling a reporter that he wants to return to the UK. Kochai was fostered aged 17 by a British woman, who maintains contact with him and has been kept anonymous by The Times. She said: “His asylum case will be rejected because he’s been to prison. But he loves Britain, the British people, and he wants to come back. “I’m concerned if he comes back. I want him to try another country, but he loves England. “I told him not to get on a boat. I said ‘Don’t do it.’ I don’t want him to drown. He can’t swim.” Kochai is one of four Afghans fostered by the woman, who retired from her career in teaching. She told The Times that she believed the 28-year-old’s claims of innocence and had visited Kochai several times during his stint in prison. “We were devastated when we found out about the accusation. We couldn’t believe it. It was very sad that it happened. “He was young when it happened, and I like to think he’s changed. He is full of life. Even in prison he was happy, working in kitchens, doing his lessons, learning a trade.” Court records show that Kochai locked the 12-year-old in a room at a home in Reading, Berkshire, pushed her onto a bed, removed her clothes and raped her. Kochai was given the option to cut his prison sentence in half if he was deported. He chose to return to Afghanistan for a brief period. While there, he married a woman, with whom he now has a young daughter. His foster mother said that he hopes to bring his new family to Britain. She said: “It’s bad for him in Afghanistan because the Taliban know he was in England, so they’re not very happy with him.” Kochai told The Times: “I will never give up trying to get to the UK. I have been in France for three months and we don’t get anything. “In the UK I can get education, a job and a house.”