The individual, who was staying in the area under a UK Government relocation plan, was later removed from the Afghan Resettlement Programme following the conviction.
The case has raised serious questions about transparency and public safety, with Conservative Senedd member Andrew RT Davies criticising the lack of communication from government authorities.
Mr Davies said: “It’s disgraceful that the Government failed to provide this information for so long.
“After authorities chose to use the Holiday Inn Express in Rhoose for temporary accommodation, I asked them to confirm if any individuals relocated under various Afghan resettlement schemes were convicted of sex offences.
“But they failed to answer the request repeatedly.
“Now it has confirmed an Afghan resettled in the Vale of Glamorgan was convicted of a sex crime, the Government has serious questions to answer.
“There are public safety implications that must be addressed.”
The information only came to light after almost a year of requests, forcing a Senedd member to take the matter to the Information Commissioner.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the conviction in a recent Freedom of Information response.
The MoD stated that it does not track the day-to-day activities of resettled individuals once they begin integration, as responsibility passes to local authorities.
This complicates the process of obtaining full or accurate data on post-resettlement criminal activity.
In total, the MoD recorded 10 cases where individuals resettled under either the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or the Afghan Response Route (ARR) committed criminal offences.
Three of those cases involved sexual offences, including the conviction in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Concerns about the use of the Holiday Inn Express in Rhoose as temporary accommodation for Afghan nationals were first raised by Mr Davies in August 2025.
There is no suggestion the individual convicted in this case stayed at this hotel.
He submitted a series of written questions to the MoD following a briefing with officials, specifically asking whether any resettled individuals in the Vale had been charged or convicted of sex offences.
The Home Office, first approached with the same questions in December 2025, flatly refused to answer in January, citing the cost of data-matching thousands of Afghan national records as exceeding the £600 legal limit under the Freedom of Information Act.
They acknowledged that a proper system for tracking resettlement cases was still under development.
An MOD spokesperson said: “It is right that any individual who commits a crime should face the full force of the law.
“Any Afghan relocated under the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) who is found to have committed a crime will subsequently be removed from the programme and their support withdrawn.”
The Vale of Glamorgan Council declined to comment.
