Rochdale child rapist who fled UK for Pakistan during grooming trial jailed for almost 20 years
Choudhry Ikhalaq Hussain has prison sentence extended after being extradited back to Britain
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A child rapist who fled Britain during his trial has been jailed almost five years after he went on the run to escape justice.
Choudhry Ikhalaq Hussain, 42, was imprisoned just a day after being extradited to the UK from Pakistan.
A judge added eight months to his original 19-year prison sentence for abusing an underage girl alongside other members of a Rochdale grooming gang.
Appearing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday, Hussain pleaded guilty to failing to surrender to court.
Judge David Potter ruled that the year he spent in custody in Pakistan before being flown to Britain would not count towards his total prison sentence of 19 years and eight months.
He called Hussain a “dangerous and devious sexual predator” who abused children for his own perverted desires.
During the trial in 2015, Hussain claimed a family member had died and was given a judge’s permission to attend a fictitious funeral in the UK.
Hussain, formerly of Mayfield Terrace in Rochdale, used the cover to escape the UK and go into hiding in Pakistan.
He was sentenced in his absence to 19 years imprisonment, after being found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of rape and one of conspiracy to rape.
Greater Manchester Police said it and international partners hunted Hussain until he was arrested in the province of Punjab in January 2019. He was flown back to the UK on Tuesday.
Detective superintendent Jamie Daniels praised the “bravery and courage” of his victim.
“Hussain is a sexual predator who mistakenly thought he could flee to another country and carry on with his life, while his victim was left to deal with the consequences of his vile actions and robbed of justice,” he added.
“His extradition and subsequent appearance in court for imprisonment demonstrate that when it comes to pursuing perpetrators of child sexual exploitation we will follow them across the globe if necessary.”
Det Supt Daniels said the case should serve as a “stark warning” to sex abusers and those who think they can escape justice abroad.
The victim said she had been sexually groomed by a large group of Asian men from the age of 14, and that “hundreds of men” would ring her up asking for sex.
She came forward following widespread media coverage of the 2012 convictions of nine men for grooming white girls in Rochdale.
The trial was one of a series launched under Operation Doublet, which investigated sexual grooming in the town between 2003 and 2013, and has so far resulted in prison sentences totalling 210 years.