An international hunt has been launched for a 29-year-old Indian-origin man, Vijesh Kooriyil, who was found guilty of repeatedly raping a six-year-old child in the UK.
He was unanimously convicted of two rapes and sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Oxford Crown Court on Friday, Daily Mirror reported.
Kooriyil had been permitted to keep his passport under his bail conditions because he had no previous cautions or convictions.
Kooriyil, who hails from Kerala, arrived in UK as an international student. Last week, he was convicted of repeatedly raping a 6-year-old boy in his bedroom in Oxford between 2010 and 2011.
Prosecutor David Smith told the court that boy learnt about the rape committed on him only after he learnt about sex at school and realised what had happened.
"Vijesh Kooriyil deployed the all too familiar ways of gaining a child's trust. He would often call the boy to come and play with him. Some of those games were innocent enough, but others took place in the defendant's bedroom," Judge Peter Ross said during sentencing.
"It was there, having secured the door with string and a nail, that the defendant began to rape a six-year-old, then-seven-year-old boy," he added.
Kooriyil had been permitted to keep his passport under his bail conditions because he had no previous cautions or convictions.
According to NDTV, Kooriyil fled to India on Monday last week, just a day before his trial was due to commence in Oxford on Tuesday. After Kooriyil failed to turn up to court last week, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
Now a global manhunt is under way for the child rapist to be brought back to the UK. Investigating Officer, Detective Constable Allister Tavner said the police were working with other authorities to bring Kooriyil back to the UK to face justice.
