‘Dangerous’ child rapist put behind bars at last
Captured in Pakistan after three years on the run
A‘DANGEROUS and wicked sexual predator’ is finally behind bars after lying about a car crash and a relative’s funeral to escape justice in the UK for over three years.
Choudhry Ikhalaq Hussain was hunted down in Pakistan.
Locals in a Punjab village had to help police apprehend the 42-year-old after he jumped out of a car window in a final bid to escape the law.
Police said Hussain, from Rochdale, had been rubbing his victim’s nose in it by ‘living the good life’ while he should have been in prison.
Today (Wednesday), he appeared in the same Manchester courtroom - in front of the same judge - where he was convicted of the rape and sexual abuse of a child in 2015.
Time was added to his 19-year sentence.
Hussain was arrested as part of Operation Doublet, launched in the wake of the
Rochdale grooming scandal. He was charged with a number of serious sexual offences, including rape and sexual activity with a child.
As he was being crossexamined during the trial, he told his barrister a relative had died and he wanted to attend their funeral at a mosque in the west Midlands.
As he was on bail, and was free to leave court each evening, he was granted permission by judge John Potter.
That funeral was in fact ‘fictitious,’ the court heard.
He embarked on a ‘concerted attempt’ to flee the country back to Pakistan.
At the start of the trial, Hussain was ordered to hand over his passport.
He said he had lost it and would order a new one.
It transpired he hadn’t lost the passport.
He used it to travel in a car onto a ferry out of Dover before flying to Pakistan, Rachel Cooper, prosecuting told Minshull Street Crown Court.
Two men travelling in the car with him told officers on their return they had been on a ‘lads weekend’ in Amsterdam and had left Hussain there.
After failing to return to court, he told his legal team a member of his family had been involved in a car crash in Pakistan - another lie.
Officers from Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency arrested him in Punjab on January 26 last year.
During his arrest, he jumped out of a car and ran away. Officers gave chase before ‘local villagers assisted them in detaining him.’
There is no extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan, so returning him to Greater Manchester has been a ‘long and drawn out process.’
GMP officers were granted permission to fly to Islamabad this week and escort Hussain back to the UK.
“There are serious aggravating factors” Ms Cooper said.
“He retained a passport, he lied to the court about the funeral of a relative, he then deliberately removed himself from the jurisdiction and remained outside the jurisdiction and then when arrested even tried to escape.
“The Crown says he has done everything possible to avoid the consequences of his actions.”
Gemma Maxwell, defending, said Hussain had had a ‘very difficult experience’ while in custody in Pakistan.
“He has been subject to bullying and a lot of violent assaults,” she said.
“He now suffers from panic attacks and he will be assessed in due course for post traumatic stress disorder.”
Hussain, who was dressed in a grey fleece and denim jeans, showed no emotion as Judge Potter handed him the maximum sentence of a year in prison, reduced to eight months for his guilty plea, which will run consecutively to his existing 19-year term, which he will now begin to serve.
The judge didn’t take into account the year Hussain spent behind bars in Pakistan, telling him: “In that regard, you are the author of your own supposed misfortune.”
Passing sentence, Judge Potter said: “In December 2015, you were the defendant in proceedings which concerned the grave and serious sexual abuse of children in the Rochdale area of Greater Manchester.
“You denied these offences and they were proceeded to trial, which I presided over.
“You were eventually convicted in your absence. In January 2016 I sentenced you to 19 years in custody.
“In my sentencing remarks then I described you as a dangerous and devious sexual predator who had abused children for your own grossly perverted sexual desires.
“You were sentenced in your absence, because whilst in the middle of giving evidence and whilst subject to bail conditions, you failed to return to court.
“You, quite deliberately in my judgement, created a subterfuge about a fictitious funeral in the west Midlands, which your barrister explained in some detail.
“I was reassured, wrongly it now turns out, that such a ceremony was taking place.
“Instead you embarked on an organised plan to flee the jurisdiction and return to Pakistan where you believed you would be able to evade justice.
“Your absence from court was disguised with further untruths.
“It was not until there was a detailed enquiry carried out at the port of Dover that it became apparent you had decided to make a concerted attempt to flee the jurisdiction.
“There is significant culpability and harm caused by your actions.
“I have absolutely no doubt at all that your willingness to flee the jurisdiction meant that the victim of your wicked offending will have been caused harm in knowing that you had a concerted attempt to avoid the consequences of having seriously sexually abused them.
“You added insult the most appalling insult to their most appalling injuries.”
Hussain was convicted after his trial in 2015 and sentenced in January 2016 for two counts of rape; three counts of sexual activity with a child; and one count of conspiracy to rape.