A global hunt has been launched for 29-year-old business manager Vijesh Kooriyil, an Indian man, who fled to India after he was found guilty of raping a six-year-old child in the UK. He has been charged with repeatedly raping the boy in Oxford between 2010 and 2011.
Convicted of two rapes, he was unanimously sentenced in absentia to an extended prison term of 18 years at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.
He had been, however, permitted to keep his passport under his bail conditions. Taking advantage of the same, Kooriyil fled to India a day before his trial was to commence in Oxford on Tuesday.
“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.
The crime came to light after the child started learning about sex at school.
He started to feel ashamed about what had happened to him, it made him feel angry and confused. He is very suspicious, not with children, but with adults. He cannot understand why he did such a thing to him.Prosecutor David Smith
The UK police is closely working with other authorities to bring Kooriyil back to the UK to face justice.
(With agency inputs)
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