A man involved in child sexual exploitation in the early 2000s has been jailed.

Choudhry Ikhalaq Hussain, 42, formally of Mayfield Terrace, Rochdale, was flown to the UK on Tuesday after being detained in the province of Punjab on Saturday.

Hussain had left the country part way through his trial in 2015, after submitting an application to attend what transpired to be the fictitious funeral of a family member.

Hussain was one of several men who were prosecuted under the umbrella of Operation Doublet - a large-scale police investigation launched in response to reports of historic child sexual exploitation, predominately in the Rochdale area of Greater Manchester, between 2003 and 2013.

Since it commenced in 2012, Operation Doublet has resulted in a total of 210 years’ worth of prison sentences.

In April 2016 at Minshull Street Crown Court, Hussain 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 count of conspiracy to rape.

Following the successful GMP-led operation to extradite him from Pakistan this week, he appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to failing to surrender to court.

He was subsequently sentenced to eight months imprisonment to run consecutively to the previous sentence.

When Hussain was arrested in Pakistan in 2019, he was remanded in prison for a year before being extradited to the UK.

The judge stated on Wednesday that this would not count towards his prison sentence of 19 years and eight months.

In his closing remarks, the judge went on to say that Hussain was a dangerous and devious sexual predator prepared to abuse children for his own grossly perverted sexual desires.

He also noted that the sexual abuse inflicted on the victim was the most grave and serious.

Speaking after today’s court appearance, Detective Superintendent Jamie Daniels, Senior Investigating Officer for Operation Doublet, said: “I would like to first start by publicly commending Hussain’s victim for her bravery and courage throughout this process, as she was subjected to the most horrific abuse.

"Her strength is further demonstrated by the fact she gave evidence at the trial back in 2015 and without her, we may not have been able to prosecute Hussain.

"She has been at the very heart of everything we have done; and for her sake alone, we have always remained determined to catching Hussain - regardless of how much time passed or distance he travelled.

"I do hope today’s result provides her with a measure of comfort as she continues to rebuild her life.

"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.

"His extradition and subsequent appearance in court for imprisonment demonstrates that when it comes to pursuing perpetrators of child sexual exploitation we will follow them across the globe if necessary.

“This is an overwhelmingly positive result for GMP as well as agencies – including the National Crime Agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British High Commission in Pakistan and the Pakistani authorities – who’ve worked in partnership with us for a number of years to secure Hussain’s extradition.

“It would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to also thank the original NHS Crisis Intervention team, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Manchester.

"They have supported us from the very beginning and were integral to securing Hussain’s conviction and sentence in 2016.

“Finally, I would like to reiterate that today’s result demonstrates our absolute commitment to bringing criminals to justice - we will always do everything in our power to ensure dangerous predators like Hussain face up to their abhorrent crimes.

"I hope this news serves as a stark warning to abusers that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.

"I also hope it sends a clear message to those who think that they can flee to the other side of the world to avoid serving a prison sentence – we won’t stop until you are put behind bars."